The Blind Date
by Bloophearts
Summary: Natsu is sick of hearing people say that he should make a move on Lucy; that would just be… weird. Lucy is sick of hearing people say that she should date Natsu; they are just friends. So, in order to shut everyone up for good, they decide to go to the best matchmaker in Fiore to predict and determine who the best partner is for them, for better or for worse.
1. Chapter 1

The Blind Date: Chapter 1

Lucy entered the guild together with Natsu and Happy. They had just finished a job and actually got their reward since this time Natsu hadn't run wild and destroyed everything within a ten-mile radius of him. "We're back!" Natsu announced with a wide grin plastered on his face.

"Welcome back!" Mirajane smiled pleasantly at them from the counter as she dried some glasses. A chorus of "Oh, Natsu you're back!" and "Hey there, Lucy" and "Did you destroy everything again?" erupted as the guild members welcomed them home warmly.

"Finally, I can pay my rent!" Lucy exclaimed happily. "If only you could be this well-behaved on our other jobs," she added.

"What do you mean? I always get the job done, don't I?" Natsu scoffed.

"Well yeah, but you always manage to destroy the entire town so we always end up using our reward money to pay for the damages!"

"But we get the job done, don't we?" he grinned.

"That's not my point!"

"Yeah, whatever. We got our pay this time, so stop complaining. I'm beat, and I'm hungry. Mira!" he yelled, "Is there any food?"

"Aye! Fish please!" Happy chimed in.

"Sure thing, you two," Mirajane nodded, before getting back to her work.

"You two…" Lucy groaned. "Well, I'm going to go home and take a bath first. See you!" With a wave at her partners, she happily made her way out of the guildhall, already anticipating the warm, bubble bath awaiting her at home.

A few minutes later, Mirajane came back with two piping hot bowls of ramen for Natsu and some grilled fish for Happy. The two wolfed down their food hungrily as they always did, resembling starved animals in the jungle. "You have an especially large appetite today, don't you?" Mirajane chuckled.

"We wanted to stop by for some food before coming back, but Lucy was whining about being dirty and sticky and she wanted to go back home for a bath first, so we ended up coming back hungry," the pink-haired boy grumbled as he chewed on a generous portion of chicken meat.

"My, my, you two make such a lovely couple!" Mirajane suddenly said, clasping her hands together and smiling dreamily.

Natsu nearly choked on the meat. "What?"

"You and Lucy look great together! Aren't you two dating yet?"

"Not this again…"

Happy was no help. "They lllllike each other!"

"I knew it!" the silver-haired woman cried.

"No! Happy, quit kidding around!"

"But when the Vulcan looked like it was going to just touch Lucy, you went crazy and started beating it till it was half-dead," the blue cat continued as he ate his delicious fish.

"And, there was the time Lucy was crying so hard, none of us could comfort her, except for you; the second she saw you she went to you and cried in your arms, remember?" Macao added. Apparently the conversation was spreading to everyone in the guild. Now different ones were crowding around the table, joining in with Mirajane.

"Man! Saving Lucy is Man!" Elfman shouted with zest.

"What does that even mean?" Natsu muttered.

"I hear you're always in Lucy's house; the best way to find you is to head over there," Erza said with a nod of the head.

"Her bed is comfy, that's all there is to it," Natsu huffed. He wasn't even in the mood to eat anymore.

"You sleep in her bed? Is she in bed when you do?" Wakaba asked in excitement.

"No, she always kicks me off the minute she sees me there…"

"So you would sleep in bed with her if you could?" Happy asked.

"No!"

"What about the time you frolicked with her in the nude?" Gray said nonchalantly.

Everyone else was stunned, with some of the more perverted men close to getting nosebleeds. "N-Natsu… You really did?"

"Were her boobs soft?"

"How big was her butt?"

"Did you two really do it?"

"NO!" the poor boy's face was extremely red now, from embarrassment. That memory was still stuck in his mind. "Where did you even get that from?!"

"Virgo told Juvia and I everything after we got back from Crocus," Gray shrugged.

"Lucy had her clothes disappear because of the Jade Dragon, Zirconis," Wendy said shyly, "and then when she was flung away I think she rammed into Natsu who was in the middle of fighting Future Rogue."

"Natsu, you lucky chap!" Wakaba smirked.

"Nothing weird happened between us! Lucy and I are just best partners, that's all we are!" Natsu retorted.

"Oh, really? I think you two make a good match though," Mirajane said.

"I agree," came Erza's reply.

"Man!" Elfman shouted, which probably meant he agreed too.

Slowly murmurs and shouts of agreements spread throughout the guild, everyone congratulating Natsu, which only made him even more confused; he wasn't like that with Lucy at all! What was their deal? "I'm leaving," he muttered under his breath, picking up his stuff and heading out the guild.

"Natsu, wait for me!" Happy shouted after him as he hastily placed the remaining two grilled fishes in his bag pack before flying out after Natsu.

"Still as dense as ever," Erza sighed, shaking her head.

"Poor Lucy, I think she likes him, you know," Mirajane said.

"Maybe when she gets back to the guild we should ask her," Levy suggested. She had just come back from a job too and had gone around asking what all the fuss was about.

"Or, we could do away with waiting and just look for her." Cana was gulping down a large mug of beer and now she had a sinister look on her face. "Come on, let's go!"

* * *

><p>Lucy Heartifilia was in pure bliss. Her lavender bubble bath smelled heavenly, and soaking in the warm water helped to work out the kinks in her tight muscles. After being well pruned, she exited the bubble bath and dried herself off, when she heard some noises coming from her room. Immediately she felt her blood pressure rise and she hastily wrapped her towel around her naked body before stomping out of the toilet and into her room. "Natsu! What did I tell you about going into my room without permission?" she shouted, until she laid her eyes on the group of girls lounging in her room. They were most definitely <em>not <em>Natsu.

"Lucy, I see you're finally out," Erza said, as she lay on the bed with her arms crossed behind her head.

Cana, Levy, Mirajane, Wendy and Carla were also in her room. Cana was as always, drinking beer—Lucy hardly ever saw her do anything else—Wendy was sitting on the floor with Carla chatting with Mirajane, and Levy was at her desk, reading a certain set of papers that Lucy had sworn she'd locked up safely in her bottom drawer.

"Levy! Don't read those!" Lucy screeched, lunging over to grab the papers out of the blue-haired girl's hands. Levy ducked the papers away just in time. "No way! This story is really good! I want to read more!"

Lucy fought the blush that was rising on her cheeks. "It's not… that… I'm not done with it yet…"

"Well, finish it soon, please? I want to know what happens next!"

"O-Okay… Sure…"

"Thanks Lucy! You're the best!" Levy gave her a big hug, which she returned half-heartedly. Was it some kind of guild trend to pay uninvited visits to her house as and when they liked? Stupid Natsu… this all started because of him.

"So… what are you guys doing here?" Lucy asked awkwardly.

"We wanted to ask you something," Mirajane said. "It's about Natsu."

Lucy frowned. "Is it about me and him again? I've told you, Natsu and I are just partners, that's all!"

"Oh really?" Erza smirked. "You thought it was Natsu the minute you heard some noise in your room."

"Isn't it normal? He always comes over uninvited!" Lucy huffed.

"Yeah, but, you came out only with a towel wrapped around yourself," Cana said with a wider smirk on her face. "Had naughty thoughts in the shower, did we now…"

The blonde's cheeks flamed. "I thought no such thing! I just… I just wanted to get him out of the room as soon as possible, so I didn't have time to put on my clothes! Ah, wait here, I'll go and change first."

Then she went back to the toilet to quickly change into a black tee and pink yoga pants before going back into the room where everyone was awaiting her eagerly. Lucy groaned inwardly. What was with them today?

Plopping down on the floor, she asked, "So, are you guys here just to ask me about my relationship with Natsu?"

"More or less," Carla replied.

"What do you want to know? We're just friends, nothing more, I've said this countless times already," Lucy sighed.

"Is he really just a friend to you?" Mirajane asked.

"Well, yeah…"

"He must be really close to you, huh? That time you were crying so hard and no one could comfort you except for him," Cana slyly said.

"That was because…" That was because it had felt so natural, to go straight into Natsu's arms; she felt safe with him, but that was perfectly normal, they spent so much time together it was normal for her to feel more comfortable around him.

"And the other time you frolicked with him in the nude—"

Lucy's jaw hit the ground as she felt her cheeks heat up in embarrassment. "W-Where did you get that from?!"

"Gray said Virgo was telling him and Juvia all about it after leaving Crocus," the young dragon slayer said.

"T-That was a mistake! It was an accident! That stupid Jade dragon made my clothes disappear and I accidentally knocked into him!"

"I'm betting you two did some things after that…" Cana chimed. "So, tell us all about it."

"Nothing happened!" _Other than the part where the idiot groped my breasts,_ she thought to herself darkly.

"Are you sure?" Levy pressed cheekily.

"Yes, I'm sure. Natsu's a dense goofball and he knows close to nothing about romance, there's no way I'm dating him, ever."

"He sure knows perfectly well how to comfort you, though," Carla added.

"It's normal. We're just close friends. It's like you and Wendy; just because you two are close friends doesn't mean you're actually dating or anything right?"

Wendy blushed at the mere imagination of it. "B-But Carla's a cat! And she's a girl!"

"I was just making an analogy, Wendy," the blonde chuckled.

"I guess we aren't getting anything out of her," Erza sighed. "Well then, I sincerely wish the two of you the best."

"We aren't anything of the sort!" Lucy protested.

"You can't be sure, you know. The future is quite an unpredictable thing," Mirajane winked. "But, I know of a way to help you find your future soul mate."

Lucy's brown eyes widened. "How?"

"Have you heard of Hera, the most well-known matchmaker in Fiore?"

"I think so… What about her?"

"She's here in Magnolia for a month, and she's accepting requests for blind dates! You know that every couple she match-makes ends up getting married and living together in bliss for the rest of their lives, right? She's never wrong!"

"I'm eighteen, I'm not looking to marry so early."

"But, don't you want to know who your soul mate is? It might be Natsu, for all you know," Mirajane chuckled.

"Natsu isn't my soul mate!"

"How would you know?" Cana asked.

"Maybe, if you go to Hera you might know who it is, then the guild would stop bothering you and Natsu about dating—that is, if Hera doesn't end up match making you both," Levy added cheekily.

"Hmm… that's actually worth a shot…" _As long as these people stop bugging the two of us to date, this should be worth it. _The guild members had long started shipping the two of them, which was a pain in the butt because they were clearly just friends, though everyone else seemed to think otherwise, for some strange reason. Maybe going to this supposedly accurate matchmaker would put an end to their misery for good.

"All right, I think I'll give it a shot."

The girls all let out a big cheer. "I'm looking forward to it!" Wendy grinned.

"I'll come with you!" Levy offered.

"My money is on Natsu," Cana said, gulping down her beer.

"I do hope it is Natsu," Erza said, and Mirajane agreed heartily.

* * *

><p>"You just asked me this four hours ago!" Natsu grumbled at the male guild members who were currently circling him. He and Happy had been looking at some job requests after going home to find that their food money was running alarmingly low, until they—or more specifically, Natsu—got manhandled and forced into one of the seats by the guys.<p>

"So, you're really not into Lucy?" Gray asked, ignoring his rival's protests.

Natsu glared at him. "Do you listen when people talk, Ice Pants? I don't like Lucy that way!"

"But you always get on edge when someone says they want to hurt her," Romeo pointed out, earning approving nods from everyone.

"Of course I'll kick the ass of whoever thinks about hurting her! She's my partner, right? I would murder anyone who tries to lay hands on any of my friends, actually," he frowned.

"Well, yeah, but you get _especially _uptight over her," the young boy pressed.

Natsu scratched his head. "Really? Maybe it's because we're closer friends, then."

"Just friends, huh?" Gajeel said from where he was chewing on some iron nails. "You sure don't act that way."

"You looking for a fight, Gajeel?" Natsu threatened, cracking his knuckles.

"Bring it on, fire face."

Natsu jumped up and was ready to pounce on the iron dragon slayer when Elfman grabbed him by the shirt and forced him back into his seat. "We're not finished with you yet."

"What else is there to ask?" Natsu groaned tiredly. He really was sick of everyone coming after him and Lucy. Didn't they tire of asking them this almost every single time they laughed at something together or starting arguing or did practically _anything _together?

"Why won't you consider making a move on Lucy?" Gray asked seriously.

"Maybe it's because he can't carry Lucy because she's too heavy," Happy mused.

"She's heavy, but I'm strong enough to carry her!"

"How do you know? You've carried her before?"

"There was the time she grabbed him and made him piggy-back her to the toilet while we were training for the Grand Magic Games," Jet said.

"Not bad, Natsu. You're finally growing up," Macao smirked.

"I was forced to! Lucy was drunk and if I didn't she'd have peed all over the floor!"

"She was drunk?" Wakaba spluttered as the provocative image of a very drunk Lucy appeared in his perverted mind. "Did you two do… you know… do anything—"

"NO! Nothing like that happened!" Natsu yelled, face turning a few shades redder.

"Seriously, just ask her out. You obviously like her," Gajeel chimed.

"Like you're one to talk, Gajeel. You haven't asked Levy out yet," Gray retorted, which made Gajeel fall silent immediately and go back to chewing on his metal snacks.

Natsu hadn't heard them. "Lucy and I? That's just… weird. We're both partners, we do jobs together, is all. Sides', her kind of guy is all sparkly sparkly and bling bling and white and shining and all that stuff." The others shot him puzzled looks, and he shrugged. "I didn't understand whatever she was telling me, either. Anyway, would you guys stop bugging me about this already? It's annoying," he huffed.

"We're pretty sure Lucy is your soul mate though," Macao grinned. "And we ain't stopping until you get her to date you."

"She isn't my soul mate!"

"How do you know that?"

"That… I… I'm not going to date Lucy!"

"You never know for sure," Laxus suddenly said. Everyone jumped at the sudden appearance of the thunder dragon slayer. He was sitting a ways from them, but had clearly been listening in on the conversation. "I heard Hera, Fiore's top-notch matchmaker is in Magnolia. Her calculations are never wrong," he continued.

"What does that have to do with me?" Natsu frowned.

"If you want us to stop bothering you, then just go to Hera and find out who your real soul mate is. That way everyone will just shut up and move on with their lives."

"I'm not interested in getting married now," the pink-haired boy muttered.

"You're eighteen, you'll think about mating sooner or later. Just go so they'll stop pestering you already, unless Lucy really does turn out to be your soul mate," Laxus said.

"She is not!"

Natsu pondered over this for a moment. True, this would probably get them off his back for good, and Lucy's too. "So, what's the decision, Flame Brain?" Gray asked.

"Fine… I'll go to this Henry person…"

"It's _Hera_," Laxus corrected with a sigh.

"Aye sir! I'll go with you too!" Happy said.

"Let's go, Happy! We'll prove to these bastards that Lucy and I are _not_ soul mates!"

In a flash the two had bolted out of the guild, slamming the doors close behind them quite carelessly. "My money's on Lucy," Bickslow said after a while.

"Same here," Freed nodded.

All of the men in the guild wordlessly nodded in silent agreement.

* * *

><p>AN: Yay you got to the end of the first chapter haha :D Hope you enjoyed it! Thank you for reading and if you don't mind, spare just a couple of seconds to type out a short review to tell me what you think? I love hearing from you guys!

Oh, and if you know me from my Spirited Away fanfics, I know I said I wouldn't be updating or writing until after 15 October, but as you know, I tend to write most when I'm at my busiest for some strange reason haha. Don't worry, this will not affect my other updates too much because I'm thinking of doing up some pre-written chapters for the others after my exams end :)

That's all from me and yeaps seeya soon~ God bless!


	2. Chapter 2

The Blind Date: Chapter 2

Lucy and Levy neared the gate that led to a path towards the modest cottage. This was in a quiet corner in Magnolia, which surprised Lucy since she had expected a big-shot like the most famous matchmaker in the country to be living in a five-star hotel or a luxury suite or something along those lines. "It looks really cozy here," Lucy commented.

"Yeah… I expected more people to be here, though. She _is_ the most well known matchmaker in Fiore," Levy said, pointing to the sign on the smooth wooden door that read, "Hera's Matchmaking Service" with a beautiful wreath of wild flowers circling it.

"Maybe it's because it's near lunchtime?" Lucy suggested as she knocked twice lightly, already anticipating meeting this woman. After learning about this matchmaker from Mirajane and knowing her prospects of actually finding out who her soul mate would be was giving her the jitters. As a young child, she adored the fairy tales her mother used to read to her and would dream of meeting her own Prince Charming in real life, get married and then live happily ever after with him. Perhaps today would mark the day she would finally take a step towards fulfilling that dream!

The door creaked open, revealing a rather senior woman dressed modestly in a green dress that fell to just below her knees. Her brown hair colored with streaks of gray was tied neatly in a low ponytail, and she wore a lavender scarf with a white apron wrapped around her thin waist. "Why, how may I help you two lovely ladies?" she asked with a sweet smile.

"Are you Hera-san?" Lucy asked.

"Yes, that would be me, and you are?"

"I'm Lucy Heartfilia, and this is my friend Levy Mcgarden. We're actually here for your matchmaking services," she said.

"Actually, I'm just accompanying her here," Levy said with a bright smile.

The lady nodded. "I see, I see, well it's nice to see a young person so interested in getting married! Most of my clients are middle-aged or in their late-twenties, you see."

"Actually I'm not really looking to get married yet..."

"Ah, so you're a young fish swimming idly in the sea, waiting for the right one to show up. Well then, come in! Have a seat, you two! We can talk about this more over a nice cup of tea."

Lucy and Levy were ushered to the very comfy loveseat in front of the warm fireplace as the old lady carried a tray with two warm cups of tea and placed it on the small, round table beside them, before taking a seat on her rocking chair opposite them. "So, how may I help you both?"

Lucy cleared her throat softly. "Hera-san, I heard that you can sort of… predict who one's soul mate is?"

Hera took a sip of her tea and sighed. "There is no such thing as a "soul mate", per se; I only do the tabulations and see who the most suited person is for you. That is what I do."

"I see," the blonde said, eyes widening.

"So, I assume you are in search of a suitable boy to date for now, yes?" the lady said.

"I guess so…" Lucy said as a light pink slowly dusted across her fair cheeks.

"Quite the bashful one, I see…" the old lady said, as she scrutinized her. "From what I see, you are a hopeless romantic, a very sociable person. A "Giver" is what we call people like you, you put the needs of your friends above yours and you appear to be quite popular among your friends, especially because you're very sensitive to their needs."

Levy and Lucy's jaws fell open at the same time. "H-How did you know?"

"That's exactly how I'd describe Lu-chan!"

The old lady only gave them a small smirk. "I've seen many people in all my years of living, so I read people quite well. And I think I know just the kind of boy for you."

"Really?" Lucy leaned forward, a smile creeping up her lips in anticipation.

"Yes, but you will only get to know this person when you meet him on your date."

"Date?" she echoed.

"Indeed, perhaps you are more familiar with the term "blind dating"? I will have to know your schedule so I can fix a date with the man, and then within three days you will receive a letter in your mail; it will contain the details pertaining to the meeting, including the venue, time and date. I will only be coordinating the first part of the meeting, however, so if there is anything else you two would like to do, you are free to do so. As for the time, you can give me your preferences and I will arrange it as so. And as for the fees, I have a habit of charging customers only after the date, if you found the date to your satisfaction."

"You're really fine with accepting fees only after the date?" Levy asked, surprised.

"Yes, I am not in the matchmaking business for the mere superficial profits, you see. I entered this profession wanting to help others lead a beautiful and fulfilling love life," Hera grinned.

"Wow, that is admirable of you, Hera-san," Lucy smiled.

"Doesn't it make you sad when you see an old man or woman walking alone down the street with no one by their side? When I was still an energetic young woman in my prime years, I thought, what a shame, for someone to live such a lonesome, dull life without a partner, and that was what inspired me to enter this profession. People said I have an eye for reading people, you see, so I decided to maximize that ability for good."

"If you don't mind me asking, Hera-san," Levy began, "do you have a husband?"

A sad glint appeared in Hera's eyes as the skin at her forehead creased. "I did, actually. Hamlin was his name. He was the best man I ever met, and I was blessed to have married him, and stayed by him until he left this world four years, eight days and twenty-one hours ago."

"I'm so sorry," Levy murmured.

"No need to worry about it, dear. Hamlin would hate to see other people sad because of him. So, enough of me, how about I get to know more about you, Lucy, so I can narrow down the scope for your potential date?"

The blonde smiled shyly. "Sure. I'm eighteen this year, and I'm a Celestial wizard part of the guild Fairy Tail. Um… I love reading and writing, and I enjoy making friends and spending time with my family."

"Do you have a favorite sport?"

"I guess that would be swimming?"

"What is the one thing that you look out for most in someone you regard as a potential love interest?"

"Someone who is loyal to his friends and will never leave them or give up protecting them. Not ever," Lucy said with conviction.

"I see. Well then, how about your dislikes?"

"Dirty things, haunted houses, rollercoaster rides and frogs."

The onslaught of questions continued, and it was a while before Hera finally declared that she had enough information to make an accurate choice for her date.

"Oh, and as for my schedule, I'm free for the rest of the week, since I'm not going on any jobs for the week," Lucy said.

Hera stood up, making the girls follow suit and she led them towards the door. "Alright then, that's wonderful. I'll send you a letter soon, dear."

After exchanging farewells, the two girls left the cottage and began their way home, chattering excitedly about Lucy's date and possible husband-to-be.

* * *

><p>"I'm looking for someone called Hambur. Are you Hambur? Geez, your name sounds like a hamburger…" Natsu asked.<p>

Happy nodded. "Aye Natsu, hearing that name makes me hungry!"

Hera stood at the door, amused by the two's antics. "Yes, I am Hera. And who might you be?"

"I'm Natsu. Natsu Dragneel, and this is Happy," Natsu introduced.

"Aye! Nice to meet you!"

"Are you two here for matchmaking services too?"

"Not me, Natsu!"

"No, actually, I just wanted to know who my soul mate is. The guys back at the guild said you know who people's soul mates are, so I wanted to know," Natsu said.

Hera frowned slightly. "So, you're not interested in the dating services at all?"

"Not really, I don't do dating. I just want to know who my soul mate is so the idiots back at the guild will stop pestering me about dating my friend."

"I'm sorry, but there's no such thing as a 'soul mate', I only try my best to make the most accurate matches between men and women so as to give a little boost in their love lives. You look like a young boy," she said.

"I'm eighteen," he replied, crossing his arms behind his head. "So, if there's no such thing as a 'soul mate', then what am I even here for? The idiots are still going to come after me about Lucy," he muttered.

Happy shook his head. "Maybe if you find out the best girl to be your future wife isn't Lucy then the others will stop."

"That's true…" Natsu said, nodding along with his feline friend.

"It looks like we have a lot to talk about then," Hera said with a grin, as she opened the door wider for them. "Come in, we can talk about this over some snacks."

Minutes later, Natsu and Happy were greedily gobbling down the cookies Hera had brought out for them while Natsu answered her questions.

"So, tell me about yourself, Natsu."

"I'm a dragon slayer; my dad Igneel's a fire dragon, and he taught me dragon slayer magic," he grinned. "I'm a Fairy Tail wizard, this is my mark, see?" The boy twisted to his side and flaunted the proud, red guild mark on his right shoulder. "Happy is my best friend, and so is Lucy, everyone back at the guild is my family. We look out for each other, and it's great! Hey Hera, maybe you should come over sometime."

"I would love to," the old lady replied, "It does sound like a very warm place."

"It is! We're the strongest guild in Fiore, cool huh?"

"Yes, that is very impressive. I watched the Grand Magic Games, and I have to say, your guild did a marvelous job," she smiled, prompting Natsu to give her a wide grin in return. "So, what do you like?"

"Like?" He blinked. "Lots of things. I like eating, sleeping, hanging out at Lucy's place, going on jobs and kicking butt, protecting my friends and fighting. But I love Happy, Lucy and everyone back at the guild, as well as Igneel…"

"What is the one thing you wish for most, Natsu?"

"I guess that would be to see Igneel again."

"You miss him very much, don't you?"

"Of course I do. He taught me everything, and he was a great dad. He's the strongest dragon ever, and the best dad I could ever ask for."

Hera smiled at that and leaned back in her rocking chair. "You're a wonderful boy, Natsu. I'm here you'll find him someday."

"I know," Natsu said with a gleam in his eyes. "I'm looking forward to that day."

"So what are your dislikes?"

He thought about it for a moment. "I hate it when my friends get hurt."

"Mm… Well then, I think I have a better idea of who would suit you most now," Hera said.

"Really? Who is it?"

She clicked her tongue and shook her head. "I cannot reveal her name to you. You see, this matchmaking service is about blind dating, and you will only get to know her on the date itself."

"Haah? Dating?" he grimaced. Natsu was never good at this sort of stuff. Anything romantic, he never really knew what to do. Thinking about all the things Lucy told him before about what people did on dates made him cringe. Holding hands, whispering sweet-nothings in each other's ears… He shook the goose bumps rising on his forearm away. It sounded so… unnatural and uncomfortable to him.

"Natsu is going on a daaaaate," Happy mused, chuckling to himself. That prompted the dragon slayer to give him a hard smack on the head. "Ow! That hurt, Natsu!" the cat whined.

"Good."

"How is your schedule like for the rest of the week?"

"I'm free, I guess. Lucy said we'd only be going on a job next week because she wanted to rest."

"Alright then, that makes things much easier. You can expect a letter in your mail within three days from now, with the details of the date in it. It will include the venue, time and date of the date. However, I will only be planning the first part of it, so if there is anything you want to do with her later, you are free to do so. And as for the fees, I will only be collecting it after the date, if you enjoyed it well enough."

"Why after?"

"Because I do matchmaking to help others, not to earn money," was her simple reply.

Natsu nodded before saying, "You're a good person, Hera-san. Well then, Happy and I will head back now. Thanks for the cookies, they were great."

"I'm flattered, Natsu," the woman smiled as she got to her feet and showed them out the door. "Good bye now!"

"Bye!"

"Bye, Hera-san! I'll give you a fish the next time we meet!"

"I'm looking forward to that," she grinned as she waved back to the two diminishing figures.

* * *

><p>After two days of anxious waiting and constant checking of her mail, Lucy's landlady finally knocked on her door one afternoon to hand her the letter from Hera. "I'm not dreaming, I'm actually going to meet him!" was what she exclaimed while grinning from ear to ear like an idiot when she felt the smooth envelope handed to her.<p>

Back in her room, Plue was amusing himself on her bed with her blankets. He would crawl underneath the covers, and then attempt to feel his way out of it. He would cheer and do a small victory dance when he succeeded and the cycle continued.

Lucy paced around her room while opening the letter. "Pu puuun?" Plue asked curiously, jumping off the bed and poking her calf softly. "Hang on, Plue." In it was a magnificent shining golden card with the details of her date inside:

_~Hera's Matchmaking Service~_

_Thank you, Lucy Heartfilia, for engaging with our services. We are delighted to inform you that your date has been chosen, and we hope you have a lovely time with him! _

_Venue: Lume di Candela Amore Restaurant_

_Time: 19:00_

_Date: Friday, 14 July X792_

_Have a lovely night, and we wish you eternal happiness! _

Lucy squealed. Today was Thursday! Hastily, she put on her black combat boots and raced to the guild. She needed to tell Levy about this! Plue followed after her clumsily, but eventually managed to catch up to her and was picked up in her arms as she continued running, not breaking a sweat. Already in her head, hundreds of outfits that she could wear was running through her mind, as well as what she would have to do with her hair, her makeup, and _oh_, she couldn't wait to meet her destined Prince Charming!

* * *

><p>Natsu and Happy were lazing around at home after a whole day of messing around at the guild and hanging around in Lucy's empty apartment for a while before they got bored and decided to head back home first before trying again. Happy was taking a nap in the hammock, while Natsu was lying on the floor along with the numerous dirty plates and laundry lying around haphazardly, thinking about what job they would do next. This time it was his turn to choose, and he was definitely going to choose something challenging; this was going to be fun!<p>

Just then, he heard some footsteps outside the door and the opening and closing of his mailbox. That must be the mailman. Lazily he picked himself off the floor and made his way over to get it. "What's this?" he said to himself as he found a white envelope inside. He hardly ever got mail anymore, who was this person?

Curiously, he opened it and began to read the contents written on the shining, gold card.

_~Hera's Matchmaking Service~_

_Thank you, Natsu Dragneel, for engaging with our services. We are delighted to inform you that your date has been chosen, and we hope you have a lovely time with her! _

_Venue: Lume di Candela Amore Restaurant_

_Time: 19:00_

_Date: Friday, 14 July X792_

_Have a lovely night, and we wish you eternal happiness! _

"Oh right, Hera. Matchmaking. Lucy," he muttered, rolling his eyes and stretching his back. "This is such a pain… Those guys at the guild are so going to pay for this when I'm done proving I'm not going to date Lucy."

Natsu sighed. Well, it wasn't like he could do anything else. Besides, it was at a restaurant, so he was going to at least enjoy the food. Drool was already forming in his mouth.

* * *

><p>Friday evening came quickly. Lucy had spent a good three hours at home prior to leaving the house on time trying to pick out a good outfit. She had thought about wearing a full-length gown at first, but then quickly dismissed it; they were only going to a restaurant—albeit a five-star one at that—it wasn't as if they were attending a ball.<p>

Out. Then she moved down the list, hurling various tops and bottoms behind her. Should she go with sexy? Nah. That would probably send the wrong signals and the last thing she wanted was for someone to think that she was a flirtatious woman or something along those lines.

After an agonizing two hours she finally found something nice to wear. Her top was an off-the shoulder, striped crop top that showed off part of her mid-riff and a light pink skater skirt that fell to her mid-thigh. Pairing it with a pair of brown knee-high, lace-up boots, she felt satisfied with her overall appearance. Then she called Cancer out to help her do her hair. He did some layering, and then helped to curl her hair so that her blonde curls felt softly by the sides of her face.

After putting the finishing touches to her makeup, Lucy Heartfilia was ready and just in time to grab her clutch and head out of the house. The restaurant wasn't too far from where she stayed, so she could just walk there. On the way, many men shot her appreciative glances, some eyeing her from head to toe and giving her a tip of the hat or a flirtatious smile. Lucy had never blushed so much in her life.

She entered the fancy double glass doors of the two-story restaurant, and followed a waiter who directed her to her table after she showed him the card she received from Hera. Her eyes darted all over the restaurant, trying to spot anyone who could be her date. She was slightly let down though, when the waiter led her to an empty table by the window on the second floor that overlooked the busy street below. Checking her watch, it read 18:54.

"Where could he be?" she shifted about restlessly, the worst possible scenarios already running through her mind. What if he had backed out at the last minute? What if something had happened to him? What if he was hanging out with someone else? What if he was lost?

_It's not even seven yet; relax,_ she told herself.

Suddenly someone's loud voice snapped her out of her train of thoughts. "Not bad, this place is real clean… Oh hey, Lucy! What are you-" Her head whipped in the direction of the oddly familiar source of noise to find a mop of pink hair following behind a waiter who was coming towards her. If Natsu had looked happy earlier, now he just looked plain horrified, which was probably reflected in her face as well.

"N-Natsu… What are you doing here?" Her heart picked up pace inside. Was Natsu really the date Hera had set her up for? That would mean this whole plan had been pointless right from the start!

"Don't tell me… Lucy?" Natsu gawked. The waiter was actually leading him right to her! _This can't be happening; Hera must have made a mistake,_ he thought, as his face grew slightly hotter.

This was going to be one interesting night, indeed…

That was what both of them thought. That is, until the waiter coughed lightly and ushered Natsu to the table right beside hers.

* * *

><p>AN: BEFORE you point a gun at my forehead and tear my neck off my shoulders, let me confirm that this _is_ a Nalu fic, so don't get your panties in a twist haha. Wonder how many of you were expecting them to be together for the blind date x)

And like WHOA thank you so much for all the support! I never thought this story would hit so many favorites and follows at the first chapter, so I told myself I'd update earlier if this somehow managed to hit 30 follows, and it actually did, so yeah I decided to just do it lol. I really appreciate it, especially the reviewees! (Just a term I use to call the real sweet people who take the time to leave a comment and make my day hehe.)

Welcome to the hall of fame guys ;)

**TheGoldenDragonofFiore, ft shipper, PandaPrincess42, lokibotan2, iwishaninjawould, Guest, Leeshyloo, SMAK101, CierraTheAlaskanDragonSlayer **and **CheezeMonster!**

Hope you enjoyed this chapter and leave a review? (: Thanks! The next chapter should be on 15 October after my exams end haha. God bless and see you soon!


	3. Chapter 3

The Blind Date: Chapter 3

"What are you doing here?" Lucy hissed as Natsu took his seat at his table. She wanted to smack him for wearing his same old outfit to such a refined setting. Couldn't he have worn his more formal clothing? He looked so out of place here. _Oh wait, that's right, it's Natsu we're talking about,_ she thought dryly in her head.

"I don't know, some Henry lady made me go on a blind date so that I'll find a suitable wife," he shrugged. "The others at the guild won't stop pestering me about dating you, so Laxus told me to find her and find out who my soul mate is."

"Technically, there is no such thing as a 'soul mate'," Lucy dutifully pointed out. "Hold on… you went to Hera?"

"Sounds the same to me. I did… why are you looking at me like that?" he asked, raising his brow. She was staring at him like he'd just grown two heads. What, was going to see Hera such a weird thing?

Okay, maybe it was. He just didn't do this sort of stuff, but who could blame him? This was one problem that he couldn't solve with his fists alone, though he would gladly choose to do that if he could.

"I went to her too… How could it be that we'd both go to Hera for some matchmaking service? Was this some sort of setup by the guild? If it was I'm so going to kill every single one of them!" Lucy fumed.

Natsu laughed. "Lucy, you're thinking too much. This is just to prove that we're not… together... Besides, it's not like we were paired together, so that's enough to make them quit bugging us."

"That's true… Hey Natsu, how do you think your date will be like?"

He scratched his head. "I didn't really think about it… I'm just hoping she's nice and simple, I guess…"

"I thought so," Lucy smiled. "I'm actually kind of excited, even if this may be kind of weird. Imagine, meeting the person you're destined to spend the rest of your life with, on this fateful day, in a romantic restaurant, no less!"

"Yeah, yeah… I'm not that interested in this sort of stuff though. I'm only here because Hera won't tell me who the girl is until I meet her in person. Besides, the food here is probably good, so I'm going to eat as much as I want," he grinned.

"Typical," she sighed. "Anyway, you should have worn something nicer here you know."

"Why?"

"Because… you don't wear sandals and loose pants to a five-star restaurant. Look," the girl gestured to everyone else in the restaurant, who were wearing stunning clothes; diamond earrings adorned women's ears along with matching grand necklaces and absolutely stunning outfits, and the men were mostly in suits or blazers or waistcoats. "It makes you look out of place," she frowned.

The pink-haired boy didn't seem too bothered by it, however. "But it's so troublesome to wear these things, it's annoying enough when Erza makes me wear my tuxedo for formal events, and I don't intend on making that a habit."

"Whatever you're comfortable with then," Lucy said with a small sigh, though her lips curled up at the corners. As expected of Natsu, never the one to care about what others thought about him.

Just then, from out of the corner of her eye, Lucy saw a silver-haired girl following a waiter who was walking towards them. "Looks like your date is here," she announced to her companion. The girl looked to be about the same height as her—it was hard to say, since she was sitting down—and she was dressed simply in a sleeveless black dress and her hair was tied into a loose braid at the side. A small blush crept up her cheeks when she laid her eyes on Natsu, who had spun around to see who his date for the night was.

"G-Good evening, I'm Grace Willows…" she greeted in a soft voice. Natsu in his own goofy way, greeted her with a big wave and an equally large grin. "Yo! I'm Natsu! Natsu Dragneel. Nice to meet you!"

_You'd think this is some old friend of his instead of a blind date,_ Lucy thought to herself with a small chuckle as she shot a bright smile at Grace. "Hello, I'm Lucy, nice to meet you."

"N-Nice to meet you too…" she murmured as her lips slowly spread into a smile and her face reddened.

She took a seat opposite Natsu, so she was just beside Lucy. Grace was clearly a very shy girl; she avoided eye contact with Natsu and Lucy, seemingly more interested in the marble flooring, and unease was written all over her face. The fairy tail wizards exchanged glances, with Natsu looking rather blank, and Lucy had to gesture to him to initiate conversation before he finally made some small talk.

"Hey Grace, are you a wizard?"

"N-No…"

"Oh, well, I'm one! I'm from Fairy Tail, see?" He twisted to show her his guild mark on his right shoulder.

Lucy promptly tuned out and looked the other way, wanting to give them some privacy. Trust Natsu to introduce himself as a Fairy Tail wizard first. Staring out into the main street below, she sighed. When was her date going to arrive, exactly? She glanced furtively at the two beside her and felt slightly sour. At least they were enjoying their date; her supposed "husband-to-be" wasn't even here yet.

"So, I assume you're my date for the night?" A deep drawl made Lucy start and her head swung in the direction of the charming gentleman who now stood before her. She felt her cheeks flush as she took in his appearance. His soft golden hair was the same shade as hers, his enchanting, emerald orbs had a hint of amusement in them, his smile—oh, his smile—he was flashing her a mega-watt, crooked grin, which was making Lucy feel all queasy in the stomach. She hadn't been expecting such a hot date! This was a dream come true! He looked like he just stepped out of one of her fairy tale books; oh this was definitely her type of man, _not_ Natsu.

As her eyes traveled down she noticed he was wearing a white button-up shirt with a black blazer, and underneath she could make out the vague outlines of defined muscle.

"Hi, I'm Hugh Freeman," he said, extending a hand out to her.

It took her a few seconds to register that he was waiting for her to shake hands with him before the flustered girl got to her feet and shook his big, warm hand. "I'm… Lucy Heartfilia," she managed, trying her best to wipe that absurd grin she had on her face off; she probably looked like an idiot.

"Lucy… It has a very nice ring to it," he commented. She was going to draw her hand back, but he held on to it, and before she could try tugging again, he leaned down and planted a chaste kiss on the back of her hand.

It took all her effort not to swoon right there and then. When he stood up again, he was wearing that crooked smile again, which made Lucy go weak at the knees. How in the world could someone be so perfect?

They sat down and Hugh rested his arms on the table, leaning forward. "So, what's a beautiful girl like you going on a blind date for?" he asked.

He just called her beautiful! He thought she was beautiful! Trying hard not to show too much excitement, Lucy cleared her throat and brushed a stray curl of blonde hair out of her face, tucking it behind her ear. "I could say the same about you—not that you're beautiful or anything, but you're very handsome," she said returned evenly.

"Let's just say I haven't been able to find the right girl, and since Hera was in town I decided to try my luck. They're right, she's real accurate with her matches." Hugh winked at her, causing her to struggle to maintain her straight face. He looked so sexy when he winked. "So, how about you? Don't you have men trailing behind a gorgeous lady as yourself?"

Lucy couldn't fight the blush that crept up her cheeks. "Well… let's just say, my guild members have been giving me a hard time about dating my partner, so some of them suggested going to Hera to find out who I should be dating," she said.

"Should I be worried about any competition, given that partner of yours?"

"No, we're just good friends."

"Well then, I'm relieved. So, you're a Fairy Tail wizard?"

Lucy raised an eyebrow, the corners of her lips twitching up. "How did you know?"

He gestured to her right hand. "I noticed the mark. What kind of wizard are you? Let me guess, fire magic user?"

She shook her head. "Good guess. I'm a celestial wizard. I summon celestial spirits and we fight alongside each other, basically. Why did you guess I'm a fire magic user, anyway?"

Hugh shrugged lightly. "Because you're smoking hot." That made her blush, and then he chuckled. "I was kidding—you are hot, but that wasn't the reason for my guess. I'm a fire magic user, from the guild Dark Fang, so I thought you might be one too."

"You're a fire magic user too? That's the same as Natsu!" Lucy turned her eyes to Natsu, who was now deeply engaged in conversation with Grace. It had taken less than fifteen minutes for that girl to warm up to Natsu, not bad! Maybe he wasn't _that _clueless after all. Not wanting to disturb them, she sheepishly turned back to Hugh and pointed discreetly in Natsu's direction. "He's Natsu, the partner I was telling you about. He's a fire dragon slayer, so you two might bode pretty well," she said fondly.

"I see… Fancy meeting him here in the same restaurant on the same day," Hugh remarked.

"Yeah… Apparently the rest of the guild told him to go the Hera too, and Hera must have arranged our dates at the same time and place. It's quite the coincidence, but it's nice to see him make a new friend. I thought he was completely clueless about romance, but when it comes to making friends, he's just the right guy," she smiled. "And they're knocking off quite well."

"You sound like you know him very well."

"Well, we're in the same team, so we're always together on jobs," she replied.

"That's quite nice. Wow, look at the time, we've been here for twenty minutes and neither of us has ordered our food yet." He handed her a menu and took one for himself. They quickly ordered their food; Hugh chose the tagliatelle with quick lamb sugo and Lucy ordered the spaghetti with grilled ratatouille.

While waiting for their food, they continued chatting, getting to know more about each other, such as their interests, hobbies, favorite places to go, funny stories that happened in the guild before.

Lucy was in the middle of telling Hugh about the time Natsu had started fooling around with the coffin-looking magic closet and how she'd pushed him in and made him wear the same ridiculous outfits as she had, when the waiter arrived with a glass of red wine and their main courses.

"It smells so good," she murmured, already feeling the drool forming in her mouth.

"Bon appétit," he smiled, and both of them dug in.

* * *

><p>Natsu was enjoying himself, despite his initial impression of how dates were like. He'd always imagined dates to be very cheesy and all about trying to impress the other person, but this blind date was turning out pretty great. Grace was very quiet at the start, but she quickly warmed up to him and soon they broke the ice between them and started sharing about themselves with equal enthusiasm. Natsu was actually glad he came for the date; Grace was a really nice girl. He couldn't quite imagine marrying her or anything of the sort, but she was very friendly and they seemed to share a lot of interests.<p>

Grace was not a wizard, but her brother was, and she hoped to become one someday, and also join her brother's guild. Despite her appearance, she also knew a fair bit about some of the Fairy Tail guild members, like Erza, Gray and Gajeel. She had also recognized Natsu and Lucy, which was why she had been especially shy at first.

They shared various stories, and Natsu was in the middle of one where he accidentally burnt the ends of Lucy's hair once and nearly got killed for that when Grace realized that they hadn't ordered their food yet.

That was when the peak of the evening arrived.

The waiter came, and the poor man was having trouble jotting down the long list of food that both Grace and Natsu were listing out; the jumbled words coming out of their mouths sounded similar to incantations, and the waiter had to have two of his colleagues help to jot down their orders.

"Whoa, you eat a lot for a girl," Natsu commented.

Grace giggled. "You eat a lot for a boy too."

"But you're a girl! Lucy can't even finish two bowls of ramen, unless she hasn't eaten for days!"

"Who said a girl can't eat a lot?" the silver-haired girl leaned closer. "How about this? We'll have a challenge on who can eat faster. If I'm not wrong, we ordered roughly the same things, right?"

Natsu scratched his head. "I think so. What's the catch?" he smirked.

"Loser pays for everything," Grace said.

"Deal! I'm all fired up now!" Natsu exclaimed, failing to consider that Happy would not be very pleased with hearing that their food money that had just been slightly restocked by their latest job would have to be replenished again.

They waited for the first bowl to arrive, before they clapped their hands together. "Thank you for the food," they murmured, before simultaneously digging into their food. They wolfed down their food greedily as if they had been starved for weeks, and to Natsu's surprise, Grace was actually keeping up with him. The only difference between them was that Natsu was a messy eater and Grace was somehow able to keep her side of the table and her clothes clean.

Plate after plate was cleared of food before more came and it was a mad rush for the waiters to clear the empty plates and replace them with more steaming, hot food. Soon the waiters decided that the two were monsters and all of them, in order to avoid random splashes of sauces no thanks to Natsu, took to wearing aprons as they approached the table to help put more dishes. Subsequently, they even had to put two more tables beside theirs in order to create more space for all the food they ordered.

Natsu and Grace were evenly matched, and neither showed signs of tiring halfway through the list of food they had ordered. The other people in the restaurant were gawking at the sight of numerous waiters crowding around their table with trays in their hands, frantically pacing to and fro, putting down plates of fresh food and retrieving the now empty ones.

Lucy and Hugh were both just as shocked to see the two of them doing this in a five-star restaurant. Lucy had been expecting this of Natsu, but Grace? That had come as a shock to her, but what was even more shocking was that she wasn't losing to Natsu at all.

Hugh on the other hand, was none too pleased as several drops of brown sauce stained his white shirt and cheek. He scowled visibly, and brought his napkin up to wipe his shirt. Lucy apologized to him over and over for Natsu's behavior, and he waved it off, though he did look rather peeved at her partner.

So Lucy and Hugh quickly finished their food, wanting to get out of there as soon as possible. "It'd be difficult to enjoy dessert here, how about we go somewhere else?" he asked.

"Um… Sure thing," she said, forcing a smile. Worried that his impression of her might have been tainted, she felt her spirits dip slightly. Natsu was such an idiot, how could he behave this way in a five-star restaurant? Not to mention, he'd influenced Grace to go with him!

Looking at the two of them enjoy themselves was also grating on her nerves a little. Watching them together just felt slightly… unsettling. Perhaps it was just she was so used to joking around with him and putting up with his terrible eating habits that she'd assumed this was an exclusively Fairy Tail thing; sharing this experience with someone else somehow made it less special.

"Are you ready to go?" Hugh asked, jerking her out of her thoughts. Seeing his face comforted her slightly. Lucy wasn't about to let her partner bring her spirits down, especially not on a special day like this!

"Sorry, let's go. How much is the bill?"

"Don't worry about it, the blind date arranged by Hera is always paid for by her," he said, grinning.

"Good for Natsu and Grace then," she muttered. She didn't even get to enjoy dessert, and she'd heard the chocolate mousse here was good too…

Hugh suggested going to a nearby shop for some shaved ice, to which Lucy bobbed her head up and down in agreement. "I see you have quite the sweet tooth," he commented, watching her place a spoonful of the sweet dessert in her mouth and the child-like smile that appeared almost immediately. She loved the way it melted in her mouth and the sugary syrup on her tongue. "It tastes sooooo good!" the blonde grinned.

"Yes, it does," the man agreed with a little laugh.

"Oh yes, you mentioned that you like reading right?" Hugh began, "I think my friend was telling me about a book fair coming up at the bookstore down the street. You know, the huge one? The books are going to be at half-price and there'll be a lot of them. Would you be interested in going with me?"

Lucy's lips parted into a small 'o' as she stared at him dumbly like that for a moment or two. "A-Are you serious? I would love to! The books there are so expensive I don't have the money to buy them but if it's half-priced this is going to be worth every jewel! When is it?"

"It's this Sunday afternoon. How about I go pick you up at one, we can go for some lunch, and then head over there."

"It's a date, then," Lucy grinned.

"Glad you're not the only one who thinks that way."

The two chatted for a while more until it was nearly ten and Lucy was beginning to feel tired. Hugh offered to walk her home, and insisted on doing so; he needed to pick her up on Sunday anyway, so might as well take the opportunity to find out where she lived first.

When they reached Lucy's door, they came to a stop and Lucy turned around to face him. "So… thanks for tonight… I really enjoyed myself," she said.

"Me too, Lucy. I'm glad I met you, so I'll see you this Sunday?"

"Sure, just ring the bell, I'll be there."

"Great." Then suddenly the man leaned in closer. Lucy's heart raced, as she wondered if he was actually leaning in for a kiss. But it was her first kiss, and she wasn't ready yet, at least not mentally, she didn't even know how to kiss, what if she made a blunder and then Hugh hated her for the rest of her life-

He cut all of her thoughts when his lips met her cheek and then he pulled away with that same, crooked grin. "Goodnight, Lucy. I'll be having sweet dreams of you."

Lucy could only dumbly stare back as he walked away, disappearing into the night.

After he was gone, she slapped her hands on her cheeks. _This isn't a dream, right?_ The sting on her cheeks told her it was not. She then proceeded to sigh dreamily and grin to herself like a mad woman. Already anticipating their next date, she unlocked the door and stepped into her apartment, making a mental note to thank Mirajane later as she plopped onto her soft bed.

She would have quickly drifted to sleep on her soft covers if it wasn't for the bump that her head had landed on. Suspiciously, she got up and pulled the covers off, only to find a sleeping Natsu there.

He was sleeping soundly, snoring even. His mouth was hanging wide open and the blonde cringed as she saw a trail of drool at the side of his mouth threatening to land on her sheets at any second. Lucy was about to wake him up by kicking him off when she thought off a better idea. Quietly tip-toeing towards her storeroom, she pulled out a balloon pump and then approached the sleeping boy with a sinister smile on her face.

Oh, he was so going to pay for this.

Lucy pointed the tip of the pump right by Natsu's ear, and then pumped a sharp burst of cold air into his ear.

His response was immensely satisfying to watch. The dragon slayer yelped and as his hands came up to cover his poor, violated ear, he accidentally rolled off the bed and fell to the hard floor with a loud thud.

Lucy broke into hysterics when she saw the dark glare he had on his still sleepy face. "Oi, Lucy! What was that for?"

"For sleeping on my bed, idiot! Go home! Isn't Happy waiting for you?"

"He said to meet here in your house, so I wanted to take a nap."

"Why my house?!"

He shrugged. "It's our normal hangout."

"I never said it could be our normal hangout!"

"Aw, let up, Lucy. Your place is comfortable," Natsu said as he climbed back onto her bed. "Wake me up when Happy gets here…" he muttered, already drifting off to sleep once again.

Lucy rubbed her temples to soothe her imminent headache. She'd have no choice but to wait for Happy to come back then… Burning holes through the pink-haired boy's head with her eyes, she resisted the urge to whack him with a pillow just for good measure.

The girl sighed resignedly. _Well, I guess there are some things Grace will never experience around Natsu,_ she thought triumphantly to herself.

* * *

><p>AN: As promised, here's the update! Exams for the year are finally over and hurray I can devote more time to writing now (: Hope you enjoyed this chapter! And thank you so much for the support, it's really crazy amazing haha.

Especially to the reviewees! Love you guys so much! Your reviews just put a smile on my face every time I read (and re-read) them (:

**CierraTheAlaskanDragonSlayer, Shugo Fairy 4eva, thecagedsong, PandaPiggy, LeeshyLoo, Senbei x Cup Ramen, Guest, TookACookie, Shaylina** and** Melody233! **

That's all from me! God bless you amazeballs and I'll see you soon! ^^


	4. Chapter 4

The Blind Date: Chapter 4

A/N: Kudos to my dear friend Leeshyloo for contributing to the characters of Grace and Hugh. She was the one who came up with the idea of Grace versus Natsu in an eating competition, and that was really amazing haha. Thank you dear! (:

* * *

><p>Lucy was rudely awoken on a fine Sunday morning by some loud snoring and uncomfortable warmth beside her. At first she had thought the snoring had come from her, except that she had already woken up and yet the snoring was still there. Nope, she definitely didn't snore in her sleep. Her bangs were matted to her forehead from all the heat and her body felt sticky.<p>

With slight irritation, she turned her head, only to find Natsu and Happy both peacefully sleeping beside her. Natsu was using Happy as his bolster, hugging him tightly and snoring in his ear. How Happy managed to stand that was beyond Lucy; the cat was even hugging Natsu back and she could vaguely hear him muttering the different classifications of fish in his sleep.

Lucy would have swooned and taken a picture of the two sleeping babies if not for two things: One, they were sleeping in _her_ bed, and two, they were drooling all over it. She had just changed her sheets a week earlier too!

In one swift motion Lucy was off the bed and in the kitchen. She emerged with a large pan and a metal spatula, and then ran to the two of them and starting banging the two items together, creating an extravagant alarm befitting the two extravagant self-invited sleepers.

"Rise and shine, you two pigs!" The blonde sang, watching in amusement as the two jumped two inches off of her bed and then tumbled onto the floor together, with Natsu apparently having landed on top of the blue cat, because amidst their mixed groans, Lucy managed to make out Happy whimpering, "Natsu… you're sho heawy…"

"Sorry, Happy…" The dragon slayer rubbed the new sore spot on his forehead that had just crashed into the floor with the full force of his weight. "Lucy, not again… It hurts!"

"Yeah Wucy…" Happy complained. "Natsu, wet off of we!"

"Oh, right, sorry 'bout that." Natsu sprung up to his feet, and then Happy flew back up into the bed, quick to nestle back into the covers and doze off again. "Are you guys really that tired? It's near noon already," Lucy yawned as she headed back into the kitchen to place the utensils back in their cabinets. "What were you two doing in my bed anyway?"

She went back into her bedroom and felt her eyebrow twitch when she saw Natsu back in her bed again with Happy by his side, but this time they were taking up the whole space on her bed.

"Yeah, but how does that explain you two in my bed? And get off!" Lucy raised a fist and punched him on his stomach and immediately regretted it. She knew he had a very fine eight-pack, but never thought it would be _that_ hard.

It hardly had an effect on the boy who had already fallen asleep. Setting her jaw, she pinched the bridge of his nose and forced his chin up so his mouth was closed, and within five seconds he was awake and gasping for air. "Were you trying to kill me?!"

"What makes you think so?" she drawled sarcastically, before shifting back onto the bed. She was still so sleepy… "Scoot over, Natsu."

The dragon slayer complied and moved over to give her some space, and then she crawled into bed again. Figuring that Natsu wasn't going to leave her bed anytime soon, she gave up and turned the other side, trying to go back to sleep. "You're not going to kick me off?" he asked suspiciously.

"I'd probably break my legs trying. But if you snore, I'm going to smother you with my pillow, got it?"

"Sure."

The night before, Fairy Tail had thrown a party in celebration of Laxus' birthday. Technically the thunder dragon slayer was supposed to be thirty-one years old, but thanks to the seven-year gap, he had managed to preserve his age and was still a young twenty-four year old. It had been a festive night for the guild, with the Raijinshuu, Mirajane and Gajeel all putting up performances dedicated to Laxus, who had been pretty much stoic-faced the entire time. The master had feigned annoyance at the whole event, but he had secretly planted a birthday present in Laxus' room, according to Mirajane. Lucy recalled being so caught up in conversation with the rest of the guild members that she had only left very late.

Natsu and Happy had good-naturedly offered to walk her home, saying that it was already well into the night and it was dangerous for her to go back alone, even if she did have her celestial spirits with her.

Now that she thought about it, Natsu and Happy must have just been finding an excuse to sleep over at her house since her place was closer to the guild. Muttering darkly to herself about revenge, Lucy huffed and closed her eyes, trying to go back to sleep.

Unfortunately, the doorbell just had to ring right then. Lucy ignored it, dismissing it as a figment of her imagination. The apartment was silent for a while after that, but then the doorbell rang again, this time slightly more impatiently.

Lucy dragged herself to her feet and exhaled deeply. If this was the mailman he wasn't going to leave until after she got Virgo to dig a hole deep enough into the earth for him to reach the depths of Hell.

She opened the door and, already preparing to throw a punch in the antagonist's face, until she came face to face with a very smartly dressed Hugh. "So… you're going to the bookstore like this?" he smirked, eyeing her up and down.

Lucy froze at the door, gawking at him. Wait… What was Hugh doing here? Why was he at her door and talking about going to the-

Right. Book fair. Bookstore. Date.

Holy shit, she was screwed. She was wearing her pajamas, she probably looked like she just went into a tornado and came out alive, and her face—oh, she must have looked like a monster.

"Ten minutes!" she yelled as she slammed the door in the man's face and raced into the toilet, squeezing a lube of toothpaste onto her toothbrush and frantically brushing her teeth. As she did so, she rushed to her closet and attempted to find something that would look nice for a simple date like this.

Thank goodness she'd planned her whole outfit the day after Hugh had asked her out again. Lucy made a mad dash back into the toilet to rinse her mouth and wash her face. After that she headed to the closet and pulled out a lace tank top, a black ruffled skirt and a denim jacket.

The girl donned her pajamas and changed into them, smoothing out her tank top and pulling her black skirt up. "Oi Lucy, where're you going?" Natsu asked.

"Crap!" She had totally forgotten about Natsu and Happy and just stripped in front of them! "Did you see anything?!"

"See what?"

"See… my… Oh never mind! I don't have time for this!" She grabbed her makeup kit and applied concealer under the new eye bags she had thanks to the party last night, some powder and then a light pink gloss with a rose blush to her cheeks.

Then she checked her reflection in the mirror, combing her hair and making sure that she looked presentable enough for the date. Checking her watch, Lucy was proud to see that only nine minutes had passed. "Don't mess up the place, and don't sleep here the whole day either, okay? I'm going now, remember to help me lock up if you're leaving!"

"Oh, sure," Natsu replied distractedly. "So where're you going?"

"I have a date with Hugh, and I'm late so enough talking. See you!" With that she rushed off and opened the door and was met with a crooked grin. "Ten minutes, you're pretty reliable, Lucy," he remarked, and held out a hand to her.

"I'm so sorry! There was a party at the guild last night, and I was so tired I overslept and the date just slipped my mind."

"No worries, I didn't have to wait long. You look great, by the way." Hugh gave her an approving nod, and Lucy blushed under his scrutinizing gaze. "You don't look so bad yourself," she said, gesturing to his skinny jeans and black V-neck tee.

"Why thank you. So, how about we go for lunch before heading to the bookstore?"

"Sure, what would you like to eat?"

"Shouldn't that be the guy's question? What do _you_ want to eat?"

Lucy shrugged. "Something simple I guess? I just woke up, so I'm not exactly hungry…"

"How about the café just down the street then?"

"Sounds good," she agreed.

They were about to continue down the stretch of road when some commotion in her apartment stopped Lucy in her tracks. Narrowing her eyes, she turned around and started walking back. "Lucy?"

"Sorry, I think I may have left something behind," she bit out. Why had she trusted the two imbeciles to take care of her house for her? Their house was akin to a dump; if they turned her house into one too, they were _so_ going to get it from her. Lucy winced at the sound of banging and crashing in her house, and just as her hand was about to grip the doorknob, the door swung open, revealing a sheepish-looking Happy and a red-faced Natsu.

"H-Hey, uh, Lucy… um… Just so you know…" Natsu stammered.

"What did you do to my house?!"

Natsu scratched the back of his head and hightailed out of there with Happy, somehow having managed to sidestep the girl. "Aye Lucy, Natsu and I are heading back home now!"

"And if you see any burnt underwear it's not our fault!" Natsu yelled behind his back.

"Burnt underwear…?" Lucy repeated. Then it hit her.

"NATSU! HAPPY! GET BACK HERE SO I CAN KILL YOU BOTH!"

* * *

><p>After a quick lunch at a nearby café, Hugh and Lucy made their way to the bookstore. A multitude of people crowded around the entrance, with hands flailing about in attempt to make a grab for several books that were on sale. The manager was standing at the side of the entrance, steering clear of impatient customers who looked ready to bulldoze into anyone who got into their way, and he was holding up a signboard with the words, "Clearing out Sale: All books at half-price!"<p>

"How are we going to get in there?" Lucy asked with wide eyes. The whole scene resembled a typical brawl in the guild and she very much wanted to get out of there alive.

"I have no idea, to be honest. I wonder if it's this crowded on the inside too? Maybe we should have come earlier… Sorry Lucy, I didn't think it'd be this crowded even after peak hours."

"It's not your fault, and I think the bookstore would be just as crowded even if we came earlier or later." She let out a sigh. "What should we do?"

"Princess!"

Lucy and Hugh both jumped at the sudden appearance of a certain celestial spirit. "V-Virgo? Where did you come from?"

"Punishment time, is it?"

"Punishment? Hugh echoed with a smirk, eyeing the maid. "Kinky. Is she one of your celestial spirits?"

"Yes, I am Virgo, nice to meet you." She bowed. Then she turned back to Lucy with the same large, blue eyes. "Princess, would you like me to inspect the situation inside the bookstore?"

"Um…" Lucy paused. If that meant digging a huge whole through the building then perhaps that would not be a good idea. She was about to protest when the celestial spirit took the liberty of going ahead with her suggestion, and began to spin wildly, digging a hole. Then she promptly disappeared beneath it.

"Where did she go?" Hugh asked.

Lucy grimaced. "She went to check out the inside of the bookstore." As if on cue, a good deal of screaming came from inside the building, and she cringed. Hopefully no one knew that Virgo belonged to her, or that would incur a lot of charges, and she really didn't want to use her shopping money for paying for damages again.

A minute later, Virgo popped out of the same hole she made and gestured towards the entrance. "There are only forty-two people in the building, Princess. Twenty on the first floor, ten on the second floor and twelve on the third. Was I of any help, Princess?"

"Then… why is it so crowded out here?" Lucy wondered. "And yeah, thank you Virgo," she grinned.

"I shall take my leave now." With that, the celestial spirit vanished in a shower of golden sparkles.

"Well then, I guess the only thing we have to do is get past this crowd of people. What are they looking for, by the way?"

"If I didn't see wrongly, I believe it's the latest edition of the Weekly Sorcerer's Magazine. I heard in this edition all the female beauties of the top guilds in Fiore are featured there."

Lucy recalled going for a photo shoot with Mirajane, Juvia, Erza quite recently. Could it be that photo shoot? Her eyes lit up immediately. What a dream come true! Finally people were appreciating her looks, unlike that goofball of a dragon slayer and that dumb blue cat. She wasn't heavy or fat!

"Earth to Lucy," Hugh smiled. "Shall we?"

"O-Oh right, yeah, sure thing. Let's go!"

Trying to get through the crowd of men and boys was the equivalent of swimming through Hell. Elbows were thrown about, sweaty bodies were pushing against each other, Lucy even swore her butt got groped a number of times, but thank goodness Hugh was there with her, because he managed to brush aside some of the ridiculously shameless men around her away and pull her through them.

By the time they entered the more quiet, air-conditioned bookstore, they were both a hot mess, or at least, Lucy was. Her hair was sticking out in odd places, she was slightly sweaty—some of the sweat not belonging to her—clothes were ruffled and her butt was sort of sore.

"That was pretty rough. You okay?" he asked. The man was hardly affected by the brawl that just took place earlier; in fact, he looked even better than he did before.

"Never been better…" she muttered, trying to catch her breath and relishing in the fresh air in the bookstore. "Wow, this place is huge," Lucy gasped. Three tall, white pillars stood in the centre of the dome-shaped building, reaching all the way to the top. The walls were painted a beautiful gradient of deep blue, with streaks of clouds running across them. It was an incredibly spacious place, with numerous bookshelves arranged in an orderly manner.

The first floor was mostly filled with textbooks, encyclopedias, books on fine dining, cooking, the arts, sports and business. Nothing much interested the two, so they proceeded to the second level, where Lucy began grinning like a fool and dashing from one bookshelf to another, muttering the names of famous authors to herself and touching various books written by them. "I've always wanted to read this! 'Dreams of a Star' by Camellia Michaels! I can't believe it's here!"

"Take your time, I'll just be exploring a bit," Hugh said with a smile, and then left the dazzled woman with her books. Lucy was rapt with joy. This had to be the best day ever, save for the day she joined Fairy Tail. Camellia Michaels, Vincent Bale, Polly Froller and Tamrya Red were her favorite authors of all time, and there were plenty of their books available in the store!

Immediately the girl was off browsing shelf after shelf for her books, and very soon, her arms were getting sore from carrying all those heavy items. Lucy didn't realize how long she must have spent at the store, because when she finally decided to check out the third floor, she found Hugh sleeping at a corner. Surprisingly, he didn't have any books with him. The girl thought he would have found at least one book to his liking, since this was a pretty large bookstore.

Well, since Hugh was already asleep, she decided to check out the other books available on the third floor. The third floor mainly consisted of spell and magic books, as well as books on mythical creatures of sorts. There wasn't much that interested Lucy, but then a particular book caught her eye.

"Dragons, the Strongest Creatures," read the title of the book.

Lucy had no idea what compelled her to open the book and flip through it. Perhaps it was because she had nothing to do, or perhaps it had to do with the fact that Natsu never really told her the little details of his life with Igneel as a child.

The chapter on fire dragons was rather short—in fact, all the chapters were rather short, since there was little information about them. She remembered Natsu telling her about Igneel once, about how Igneel was a caring father who taught him nearly everything he knew: dragon slayer magic, reading, writing, and the list went on.

_Fire dragons have scales that are fire-resistant. Primarily, their source of energy is fire. Humans are consumed occasionally as well. Fire dragons are specially known for their strength and their viscous temperaments. Some have purportedly adopted orphaned children and taught them dragon slayer magic, including the dragon known as the King of Fire Dragons, Igneel. _

"Orphaned children…" Lucy read aloud. Right, she had never actually asked Natsu about his birth parents before. Did he remember them? The way he spoke made it seem as though Igneel had been the one to give birth to him instead of two humans. Perhaps that should be a question left for another day.

_Natsu… I wonder what your story is?_

* * *

><p>"Natsu?"<p>

The dragon slayer's head snapped up at the sound of his name, and craned his neck to see Grace standing just a few meters away. "Hey, Grace! What are you doing here?" Happy also perked up and waved a paw. "Hello Grace!"

She grinned and jogged over to him, with a basket in tow. "Good afternoon, Happy. I was just doing some grocery shopping. What about you two? That's quite a lot of things you've got there," she said, gesturing to the numerous bags of groceries in Natsu's arms.

"We were uh, just shopping for stuff."

"I see," she giggled. "So are you heading home now?"

"We're going to Lucy's house!" Happy chirped. "Natsu burnt her underwear this morning so he wants to make up for it."

"Oi Happy! Shut it!"

"Oh my…" Grace muttered, still retaining the smile on her face. Evidently, she was amused, yet also quite amazed at how Natsu could have set fire to Lucy's underwear.

"Aye! Grace, where're you going now?"

"I'm actually on my way home. Do you need some help with the bags? They look rather heavy."

"Nah, this is a piece of cake. I've carried things heavier than this too," he said, flexing his biceps a bit.

Grace laughed lightly. "Can I walk with you two for a bit? It's been a while since I caught up with friends like this."

Natsu raised an eyebrow. "Don't you have loads of friends?"

She shook her head sadly. "Not really, you know how awkward I am around people, and at home it's just my brother and I, so it does get lonely when he goes away on jobs."

"Grace, why don't you come with us then? We can hang out first before going to Lucy's place," Natsu suggested.

Her eyes widened. "Really?"

"Aye!" Happy exclaimed. "Let's go fishing!"

"Okay!" his partner agreed heartily.

So they went to their usual fishing spot, except to their disappointment, they realized that they couldn't fish because both Fairy Tail wizards did not have their fishing rods with them.

"Don't look so depressed guys…" Grace said as she tried to soothe the two very upset children.

"But… I was looking forward to eating fish…" Happy wailed.

"Sorry Grace, I was so fired up too…" Natsu muttered.

"It's really fine, it was fun walking here with you anyway," she smiled. "How about next time? I need to go home and make dinner, so I have to go soon. How about I walk with you two to Lucy's house and then we'll make our way back home?"

Natsu pursed his lips. "Sorry about this, Grace…"

"It's okay! I'm looking forward to fishing with you guys the next time."

"You don't mind fishing? Lucy finds it boring," the boy said.

"I like it, actually. It's very calming, and it really makes you excited when you feel that tug on the line, doesn't it?"

"Aye sir!"

"Next time we'll compete and see who catches more fish!" Natsu grinned.

"Alright, but you'll have to bear with me, I'm not the best fisher out there."

"Hey, it's all about the fun, right?"

A light pink dusted across Grace's cheeks. "I agree."

So they picked themselves up and made their way to Lucy's house that was just nearby. They were having a good chat and laughing over some jokes courtesy of Happy and Natsu, and soon they were at Lucy's front door. No one answered when they knocked. Typically, this wouldn't have stopped the two; they would have just knocked the door down or flew in through the window, but Lucy would not appreciate that on top of getting her underwear burnt in the morning.

"We'll just have to wait till she gets back home," the dragon slayer sighed, leaning against the wall with his arms folded. He looked quite odd folding his arms that had plastic bags hanging all over them, in Grace's opinion.

"Natsu? What are you doing here?" He perked up at the sound of Lucy's voice, and turned to find her carrying a large, heavy bag, accompanied by another man.

"Oi, Lucy! We brought you some stuff!" the boy grinned, raising the bags in his arms.

"Natsu wanted to apologize for burning your underwear earlier," Happy added cheekily.

"Happy!" Natsu growled.

"Good evening, Lucy," Grace smiled, waving a friendly hand to her, and to her companion.

"Hi, Grace! What are the three of you doing together?"

"We bumped into each other, earlier, so we were together for a bit, but I have to go now. My brother should be back soon and I need to prepare dinner. Goodbye now! And Natsu," Grace wrapped her arms around Natsu's neck in a brief hug. "Thanks for today, Natsu, Happy. I had a lot of fun."

Natsu grinned. "Let's hang out some other time, Grace!"

"Aye sir! Here's a fish, you can have it for dinner with your brother," Happy said, as he handed a big, fat fish to her. Smiling, she patted his soft, furry head. "Thank you, Happy." And then was on her way back home.

"You seem close…" Lucy muttered.

"Yeah, we had loads of fun today."

"Aye, if only we brought our fishing rods… I want fish!" Happy whined childishly.

"Don't you have more in your bag?" Lucy asked.

"I just gave my last one to Grace," he muttered, looking down with a pout.

"We've got more at home, Happy. Anyway," Natsu began, eyeing the person standing a little to close beside Lucy. "What're you doing here?"

"We were on a date," Hugh said, sliding a hand down Lucy's waist, eliciting a squeal from her. She giggled and flushed, playfully hitting him on the chest. This caught Natsu by surprise. He'd never seen this face of hers before. And it actually looked sort of… cute.

Then Hugh caught her hand and swiftly leaned forward to land a kiss on her cheek.

Natsu felt his eye twitch irritably.

"We went to the bookstore today. Look at this!" She held out her big, fat bag. "I got nine books today, all for a really good price!"

"That's great, Lucy..."

"Lucy, who's that guy?" Happy asked, tilting his head slightly. "His hair looks funny… like a bird's nest."

At that, Natsu burst into hysterics together with Happy, while Hugh glared at the two of them and Lucy tried to hold her laughter in. "Happy, that was rude!" she chided, though despite herself, she broke into a smile, and hoped for dear life that Hugh wasn't looking at her at the moment.

"Lucy, I didn't know you hang out with such… uncouth people," Hugh said with a sharp glare directed at her two partners.

"We're not un-cool!" Natsu retorted.

"Lucy, the bird-head's bullying us!" Happy whined.

"Why you little-" Hugh looked ready to pound Happy.

"That's enough guys…" Lucy started, but the dragon slayer and cat were as good as deaf; they continued bickering hotly with the blond, all three of them giving off dangerous vibes, until Lucy decided she had better put a stop to that before someone went out of control. She promptly shouted, "Enough!" and proceeded to drag a furious Hugh into her apartment, shutting the door behind them.

Natsu and Happy were left facing a wooden door. "Oi! Where're you running? I'm not done with you yet!" Natsu yelled at the door. Some angry voices could be heard from within, so they assumed Lucy was scolding Hugh for being rude.

With an irritated huff, Natsu threw the bags of groceries down, revealing red lines all over his arms from where the plastic bags had cut into his flesh from carrying them around for the whole day. "I don't like that guy…" Happy muttered.

"Me neither," Natsu agreed gruffly. "I don't like the way he looks at Lucy; he looks at her like she's his food."

"Is he planning to eat her?" the cat asked worriedly. "I still want to go on missions with Lucy."

"He better not."

"Natsu, what do we do with all these bags?"

There was a short pause. "Just… leave it here. I don't want to carry it around."

"Aye! Let's get some dinner now! I want grilled fish!"

"Sure thing, partner!"

Meanwhile, unbeknownst to the group, a certain matchmaker was watching them from afar with a gentle curve of her lips. "Interesting lot this is… hehe, I guess we will have to see how things go from here."

* * *

><p>AN: I'm so sorry for the delayed update! I have a habit of updating every week, but I was having a lot of trouble with this chapter. For the past four days I've been staring at my word document trying to figure out what to do with it exactly. Hopefully this chapter wasn't too bad haha and um yeah.

By the way, I'm open to ideas or suggestions for story plots and stuff; not that I haven't planned any, but if you have anything to suggest, for example, having Natsu and Lucy fall off a cliff and get saved by a giant rock monster or something. Feel free to PM me any suggestions, and if I use them, I'll be sure to give you a special mention for that chapter! ;)

And here's a big thank-you to my reviewees:

**CeeCeeTheAlaskanDragonSlayer, b2utifulshawoi, Leeshyloo, PandaPiggy, TookACookie, Melody233, rebma726 **and **Yessss!**

By the way, thank you for all the follows and favorites so far! Really appreciate them! See you soon! (:


	5. Chapter 5

The Blind Date: Chapter 5

Lucy was in high spirits, because it was her turn to pick a job. She'd lost to Natsu in rock-paper-scissors two times before, and therefore had to put up with terrifyingly dangerous jobs for the past two weeks. But this time, she was definitely going to choose something easy and quick to complete.

At the moment, the blonde was heading over to the guild together with Natsu and Happy. Happy was eagerly making absurd faces at Natsu, hoping to show them off to Carla to try making her laugh since she was feeling down these days, apparently. Lucy grimaced when she saw Happy hang his mouth open and cross his eyes comically. Honestly, he was just like Natsu when it came to romance and chasing girls.

It was still rather awkward with Natsu since the incident with Hugh. Hugh had been quite angry, and it turned out that he was suspicious of her true relationship with Natsu. The whole thing about her burnt underwear and Natsu staying over her house frequently hadn't left a very good impression on him, apparently, and it had taken a while to convince him that she didn't have such feelings towards Natsu at all.

But what bothered her most was that she had just slammed the door on Natsu and Happy even though they had gone through the trouble of shopping for groceries for her the whole day in order to make up for a burnt piece of fabric. The dragon slayer had yet to say a word to her, which was very unlike him. Happy didn't seem to be bothered by it at all, but Natsu was being unusually quiet around her, aside from his boisterous laughter upon seeing his feline companion's "cheer-up faces".

"Oi, Lucy." The girl's head jerked up and swung towards Natsu. She felt her cheeks heat up slightly in embarrassment. "Y-Yes?"

"You're real quiet today."

"Really?" she laughed nervously, looking away, trying hard not to roll her eyes at that. "Maybe I didn't sleep well last night."

"I bet you'll sleep better when we're in your bed," Happy chimed.

She shot him a glare and pulled one of his ears. He made sounds of protest like a child. "I never said you could sleep in my bed! And no, you two take up too much space!"

"Really?" Natsu crossed his hands behind his head. "I think it's you who takes up too much space."

She narrowed her eyes at him. "You're one to talk! Stop sleeping like a starfish!" Lucy had woken up one too many times in the morning to see Natsu's hand casually rested over her boob while he was snoring away and practically sleeping at the center of the bed. Never mind that he had also pushed her off the bed in his sleep a couple times before.

"But your bed's comfortable…"

"Go buy your own then!"

"But you already have one, why buy another?"

Lucy rubbed her temples tiredly. All this arguing was not good for health, especially so early in the morning. "Anyway, Lucy," Natsu began, scratching his head and dropping his gaze, "Sorry about yesterday."

Lucy blinked twice. "Sorry about what?"

He frowned. "About the thing with bird-head."

"He has a name, you know."

"Wasn't it bird-head?"

"It's not even a proper name!"

"He's weird, so I figured," he shrugged. Happy nudged him, and he spotted the flat stare Lucy was shooting him. "Sorry."

"It's Hugh, Natsu."

"Me too, sorry Lucy," Happy muttered. "But his hair really does look like a bird's nest."

"Right? I wonder if he has eggs in them…"

"Eggs! I want them fried!" Happy cheered.

"No, scrambled eggs are the best!"

"Fried eggs!"

"Scrambled!"

"Guys," Lucy bit out through gritted teeth. She gave them warning glances, and they immediately dropped it. But then she smiled. "It's fine. Just, try to get along with him better? He's nice once you get to know him."

Natsu snorted, clearly unconvinced. Well, he was one to get riled up pretty easily. Lucy sighed. It seemed he'd need extra time to get used to Hugh. "But I'm sorry too… for leaving you two at the door like that, even though you went through the trouble of buying so many things for me…"

Happy and Natsu both turned their heads away from her at the same time, but she noticed the hint of light red on their cheeks. "I-It was nothing, we had extra money, so why not?" Natsu muttered under his breath with his arms folded across his chest.

"Yeah, and he burned your underwear, so he wanted to make up for it," Happy quite gleefully reminded. Natsu promptly grabbed him by the ear and began to ruffle his fur. The cat whined and struggled in his partner's hold, complaining that he wouldn't look good for Carla when they got to the guild. Lucy couldn't help but chuckle at the two of them. At least the ice between them had melted.

Soon the magnificent towers of the guild came into view and the two children beside her lit up visibly. Then Natsu quite suddenly grabbed her hand and bolted off towards the guild, dragging her along despite her shocked protests. He threw open the doors of the guild, entering together with Happy and then he was off looking for Gray to spar with while the cat went in search of Carla, who was sitting at a table with Wendy.

"Lucy, you're back! How was the date?" Mirajane asked excitedly. "Yeah, were you paired with Natsu?" Cana chipped in, as she gulped her beer greedily.

The scowling blonde who was still fixing her hair that had become a hot mess no thanks to her partner, sat down at the table and shook her head. "No."

Before she knew it, nearly the entire guild was circling her. "No way, you weren't paired with Natsu?"

"Must have been a mistake, the two of them were meant for each other!"

"You were holding hands while running in though," Mirajane said with a small, disappointed pout.

"Oh crap, I bet everything!" Wakaba yelled, spitting out plumes of smoke as he did so.

"Argh, shit…" Macao groaned from where he was.

"Hand it over, people," Cana smirked, receiving the wad of bills from nearly every other guild member who seemed to be deflating at the moment.

Lucy was astounded. "Why is everyone giving Cana money?"

"We made a bet, and everyone bet that you and Natsu would be dating each other, except for me," Cana grinned.

"You used your cards, didn't you?!" Elfman demanded.

She shrugged. "No one said I couldn't."

Lucy could hear some sobs as the mages dejectedly gave their hard-earned money, while the woman was cheering at the extra booze money that would last her a good two months.

After they were done fussing, a rather cross Macao who'd just lost a good deal of money to the brunette called, "Gray, get Natsu over here!"

"On it," the ice mage called, and while others calling his name distracted the dragon slayer, he landed a fine kick to his gut, causing him to fly through the air and crash onto the bench, narrowly missing Lucy.

"What do you mean you two weren't paired up? I thought both of you went on a date," Gray said.

Natsu scowled at him, rubbing his sore head. "We weren't paired up, so quit bugging us about it!"

Erza frowned. "Who were you set up with then?"

Lucy grinned while Natsu snorted. "She's dating some hill called Bird head."

"Natsu! It's Hugh, and he's not a bird head!"

"Whatever, that guy's weird."

"No, he's not!" Lucy shot back, resisting the urge to slap him on the arm—not that it would actually hurt him, anyway.

Cana smirked. "Is he hot?"

She blushed. "I-I guess so…"

Levy squealed. "But I really wanted you to go with Natsu! We all thought you two were together because Natsu didn't come to the guild yesterday!"

"Yeah," Gray agreed, "we all thought it had something to do with you."

Well, technically, Natsu not being at the guild sort of had to do with her, just not in that way… Lucy laughed it off, shaking her head. "I don't spend every waking moment with Natsu, you know."

"Aside from the fact that he goes to your house all the time," Lily commented.

"It's not like we're alone! Happy comes as well!" she retorted with burning cheeks.

"Oh, I bet you don't want Happy to be the third wheeler, huh…" Cana teased, making Lucy groan.

"Anyway, you better tell me every single detail later!" Levy said, thankfully dropping the whole thing.

The blonde sighed. "I will, but maybe after we get back from our job. We came here to find a job to do."

"Okay!"

"What about you, Natsu? Did you make a mess with the girl?" Gajeel smirked.

"Was she hot?" Wakaba asked.

"Who, Grace? Well, I guess she's pretty… She's good at eating too."

"She rivals Natsu in eating capacity and speed," Lucy cut in, making the guild members around them widen their eyes and grin. "I want to meet her already," Bickslow remarked.

"I take it the date went smoothly," Erza added with a motherly smile. She placed a hand behind Natsu's head and swiftly knocked his head against her armor in a supposed embrace with a loud clonk. "Congratulations, Natsu. You're finally growing up."

Some of the other guild members like Macao, Mirajane and Elfman were rather upset that Natsu and Lucy hadn't been paired together, however, and were at the moment, sulking away at a corner. After a good twenty minutes of being hounded by the women and men respectively, Lucy and Natsu decided they had enough and escaped to the guild request board at the first chance they got.

"Why won't they stop asking me questions? I thought they would stop once I proved I wasn't dating you," Natsu frowned.

"They're just excited," his partner chuckled. "Anyway, it's my turn to choose the job."

"Yeah, yeah," Natsu sighed. "Just choose something exciting please? I don't want to be helping old people cross the river again…"

"But that paid really well, and it was definitely safer than scaling a hundred-meter tall cliff in search of a tiny gemstone!"

"No one died," Natsu shrugged. "Nothing would have happened to you anyway, I wouldn't have let anything happen."

She rolled her eyes. "And yet you told Happy to leave me be when I was barely holding on to a crumbling edge with one hand."

"Well it worked out, didn't it?" he grinned, completely missing her point as usual. "Anyway, quickly choose something… How about this one? 'Destroy all hundred of these monsters that are terrorizing the village please!'" he read aloud. "Hey, the reward is 35,000 jewel."

Lucy leaned over to look at it. There was a picture of one of the monsters. It looked extremely large, had three tongues hanging out of its impossibly huge mouth, eyes that appeared to be bulging out of their sockets and eight tentacle-like tails. "No," was her immediate answer. No way was she going to try taking on a hundred of them!

"But it'll be fun!" Natsu complained.

"No it won't, if we have to kill a hundred of them!" she shot back. "And the reward isn't much! Look at this one!" she pointed to another flyer that had the picture of several adorable wing-pets on them. "'Missing pets, please help to recover them!'" she read. "And look, the reward is 50,000 jewel!"

Natsu took a glance at it. "Well, I guess it's not too bad…"

Lucy grinned. "Then it's settled! Mirajane!" She tore the flyer off the board and jogged over to Mirajane who was by the counter. "Yes, Lucy?" she asked with a pleasant smile.

"Natsu, Happy and I will be taking this job," she said, handing the flyer to Mirajane. The silver-haired woman took it and nodded, reaching below the counter to take out a file filled with records of accepted guild requests. "Alright. You'll have to go down to the town of Mignon. And…" she shot an apologetic glance at Natsu, "it's about three hours away by train."

"Oh, it's just three hours," Lucy remarked, at the same time that Natsu exclaimed in disbelief, "Three hours?!"

An hour later, Lucy, Natsu and Happy were seated in the train on the way to Mignon. "I… don't… feel… so good…" Natsu muttered. His face was turning a sickly shade of green. "We really should do something about this motion sickness of yours," Lucy sighed, while Happy sat beside him munching on his fish snack. "Natsu, do you want some fish?" he asked.

"No… thanks…" Natsu said. The thought of food seemed to only make him feel worse.

"Don't worry, it's just two and a half more hours," Lucy said encouragingly, though it had a reverse effect on the sick dragon slayer opposite her. "I can't… take this anymore…"

"Why don't you lie down and try to sleep? You'll be alright when you wake up," the blonde suggested. Feebly, the boy stood with shaky legs to try lying down. "Do you need me to help you?" Lucy asked worriedly. He shook his head gingerly in response, but by the looks of it, he really did need some help. So the girl stood up and was about to grab hold of his arm when a sudden bump made both of them stumble and fall back onto Lucy's seat.

"What-" Suddenly Lucy felt Natsu's lips crash onto hers, as his body was pressed against hers when they fell. Now Natsu was practically straddling her lap and he had one hand quite conveniently squashing her left boob.

That had just been her first kiss.

Lucy was about to push him off of her and scold him for stealing her first kiss but he was already peeling his body off of her and trying to get back to his seat. "Sorry Lucy…" he muttered, apparently not realizing that he had just accidentally kissed her.

Lucy's cheeks heated up in embarrassment as her heart hammered in her chest. "Lucy, your face is red," Happy said, "do you want to hang your head out the window to cool off?"

"I'm not a dog!" she snapped, but turned her face away from them. Why was she feeling so shy? It was Natsu, for goodness' sake! But then again, that was her first kiss, which probably explained why her heart was doing somersaults in her chest and why her insides were turning to mush.

The rest of the train ride went quietly, except that Natsu couldn't sleep with all the bile at the back of his throat, so he whimpered and groaned like a child the entire ride.

"We're here!" Happy exclaimed, walking out and holding Natsu's hand. "Natsu, you okay?"

"Y-Yeah… I just need to sit down for a bit first."

"Look, the town of Mignon is there. It's just a short walk away from the station, let's go guys," Lucy said, keeping her eyes averted from Natsu.

"Aye sir! Come on, Natsu!"

"Y-You guys…"

Mignon was a small, serene town, but it was a little too quiet for Lucy's taste. There was no one in sight, and the silence engulfing the area was rather creepy. "We have to find the missing pets, but where's everyone?" Lucy asked aloud.

"Dunno about that," Natsu said out of the blue. Lucy realized they were standing so close their shoulders were barely brushing, and quickly she took a step away. Thankfully, he didn't notice. What was with her now? This was just Natsu! And that was just an accidental kiss!

_Yeah, an accidental kiss with Natsu who actually smells very nice despite being such a wild man-_

Lucy smacked her cheeks hard. "Lucy?" Natsu raised an eyebrow.

"I think there was a bug on my face, hahaha…"

"Aren't you one?" Happy said, giggling.

Lucy would have strangled him if it weren't for those pesky wings of his. "Well, the job says to look for the pets so let's just look for them. How big are wing-pets again?"

Happy and Natsu shrugged. As always, the clueless ones. Lucy sighed internally. "Should we split up to search for them? I think we should find the village head first though, I want to know what happened with this place." There were several buildings with roofs that were caved in, and crumbling walls. "You don't think something happened to them after they posted the request, do you?"

"Are you the Fairy Tail wizards who have accepted our request?"

The sudden appearance of an unfamiliar voice startled the three of them. They came face to face with a short, elderly man who was dressed in a suit and holding a cane for a walking stick.

"Yes, we are," Lucy said. "Are you are..?"

"My name is Steven Mignon, and I am the mayor of this town. Please, help us, everyone has fled and we are all taking shelter in our nearby emergency shelter."

"What happened around here?" Natsu asked.

The mayor sighed deeply and shook his head sadly. "Our town treasures wing-pets dearly; we are rather well-known for our wing-pets since nearly every single person who lives her owns one, but recently they've gone missing and at the same time, these monsters have been attacking our town, forcing us to hide elsewhere for the time being. You must save us!"

"How do these monsters look like?" Lucy asked, dread already washing over her. Hopefully they wouldn't be too difficult to deal with.

"They look different from one another, but I have heard that they bear some resemblance to our former wing-pets. The monster that attacked my home and family strangely resembled Aline, our feline wing-pet, but I think it is just a coincidence. Something must have happened to them, so please, help us find them and bring them back safe and sound," Mr. Mignon bowed his head.

Lucy smiled, placing a reassuring hand over his. "Don't worry, we'll do our best."

"Aye! We're Fairy Tail wizards! We'll get the job done for sure!" Happy chirped.

"Don't fret, old man! But where should we start looking?"

"The last time we saw the monsters, they were retreating into the jungle just over there. It's not a very big jungle, so you should be able to spot them easily if they are still there."

"Alright, let's do this!" Lucy cheered.

But after spending almost an hour in the jungle avoiding protruding roots and thick, hanging vines, the girl was already losing motivation. She'd lost count of the number of times she got slapped in the face by the thorny vines from above, tripped over rocks and slipped on mud. Now she looked like she'd just taken a mud bath with a bunch of angry tigers.

Natsu and Happy on the other hand, despite being clumsy goofballs, seemed to be doing fine. She huffed in annoyance, as she stumbled over a root again. "Where are those things?"

"Beats me, we'll just have to keep looking," Natsu replied insouciantly. "Lucy, you look like a mess."

"Wonderful," she muttered. "How about I fly up and see if they're around somewhere?" Happy suggested.

Lucy nearly slapped herself for not having thought of that earlier while Natsu perked up and grinned. "Yeah, let's do that!"

Happy flew upwards, leaving Lucy and Natsu alone. He held out a hand to her. "You really should stop tripping over so much…" he said. She blushed, taking his big, calloused hand and standing up with his help. "Sorry… how are you not falling over this stuff anyway?"

"I'm smart!"

"Hey, I'm smart too!"

"Says the clumsy one. Come on, let's get going." They went on, but Lucy noticed that Natsu didn't let go of her hand, and it felt unexpectedly… nice. His hand was really warm and while they were walking Natsu would remind her to watch out for roots and hold the vines up for her. Since when did he become such a gentleman?

Then again, he always had this caring side of him, which she absolutely adored.

Out of the blue, there was a sharp rustling sound coming from the trees to their right. Something was barreling straight through towards them, and Natsu pulled her along with him as he ran away, except she couldn't keep up, which forced him to pick her up bridal style and duck away just as the rolling monster came to a stop at where they had just been standing.

"What is that?" Lucy asked, horrified. The ball-shaped thing had tiny wings on its back, appearing too small for it to fly. It was furry, but mud stained its once possibly gleaming white coat, and twigs and leaves were sticking out in odd places from them. It had deep red eyes and two ugly buckteeth sticking out of its large mouth, along with some slimy drool. Thankfully though, it was only about a meter taller than them.

The monster righted itself and then let out a roar in the direction of Natsu and Lucy. The putrid smell of its breath and some of its saliva slapped both of them in their faces. "Ew…" Lucy complained, while Natsu looked like he was about to pass out from the horrid smell.

"Natsu! Lucy! There's a monster coming for you!" Happy appeared, floating in mid-air. "Oh. He's already here," he said sheepishly.

"An earlier warning would have been nice!" Lucy said as Natsu put her down. "Anyway, what are we going to do about this?"

Natsu cracked his knuckles with a manic grin on his face. "Well obviously, we're going to beat it! Happy!"

"Aye sir!" the cat took hold of the back of Natsu's top and they went flying straight towards the monster. "Iron fist of the fire dragon!" Natsu's flame-engulfed fist made contact with the monster, making it cry out and roll away. For some reason, that cry made something ache in Lucy's chest. Something wasn't right.

"Wait, Natsu-"

"Oi! Don't run away! Come back here and fight!" Natsu and Happy promptly chased after it, leaving Lucy behind. She sighed. He really needed to listen more and stop acting with his fists all the time. She looked around. There seemed to be no sign of other monsters, and the only trail she could follow would be where that monster came from.

Dusting herself off, she made her way through the path of fallen trees and indents in the ground. Pushing down the bad feeling stirring in her gut, she walked on, keeping a lookout for other monsters as she did so. She did not take a particular liking to being squashed like a pancake. As she neared the end of the trail, she smelled something strange. It smelled similar to the monster before, but yet there was also a sweet smell coming from it. She could also hear some grunts that she could imagine hearing from the monster before, but there were also some high-pitched squeaks coming from the area.

When Lucy reached the end of the path, what she saw baffled her. There were at least thirty monsters idly roaming about the open space and about twenty wing-pets trapped in cages, shaking in fear. What had happened to them? Had those monsters kidnapped the poor things?

"Now, now, don't struggle so much, it won't hurt at all, trust me dear."

Lucy peeked her head out as little as she could to see an elderly lady standing with her back facing her. She was by a small wooden table holding trembling wing-pet that was crying out in fear in one hand, and a syringe with a very lengthy and sharp needle in another. "Hold still now," the lady said in a soothing voice, and in a swift motion, she stuck the needle in, causing the poor wing-pet to let out a high-pitched keen.

The lady let go of it and it fell to the ground, seemingly unconscious. A horrified Lucy thought she had just killed the wing-pet, but she had thought too soon. In a matter of seconds, the wing-pet's body began to glow with a dreadful dark purple color, and it began to shake violently till its body appeared to be just a blur.

Soon, it began to increase in size. Buckteeth appeared from its mouth, and its eyes turned from a lovely brown into a blood red color. "So that monster was actually a wing-pet?" Lucy muttered to herself in disbelief.

She needed to get to Natsu in case he killed the innocent thing!

But just as she was about to get away, a large, furry hand wrapped itself tightly around her waist and lifted her up. Lucy screamed in shock, alarming the other monsters and wing-pets, and caught the elderly lady's attention immediately. "Who goes there?" she demanded.

The monster that now had Lucy in its hand obediently went over, and Lucy began to panic as the woman waved a brown stick in the air with a sinister smile on her wrinkled face. "Well, well, what do we have here? I've never seen you around in Mignon before…"

"Who are you and what are you doing with these wing-pets?" Lucy asked with furrowed brows.

"I believe I asked first, stubborn girl." A quick wave of the stick caused an invisible force to clamp Lucy's mouth shut. The woman's eyes came to a rest on Lucy's right hand. "Fairy Tail? So you're the wizard who accepted Steven's request?" She cackled in amusement.

Lucy felt the force on her mouth slowly disappear. "Why are you doing this?"

The elderly woman harrumphed and turned around, bending down to open one of the cages containing the wing-pets. The three of them huddled to a corner, shaking in their spots as they watched her reach a hand in and grab one of them out. The poor creature cried out and struggled in her grasp, but to no avail. "Wing-pets are such adorable creatures, don't you think? That lovely coat of theirs, those sparkling eyes, cute button noses and their magnificent wings. I love every bit about them!"

Lucy raised a brow. "Then why are you hurting them? Were you the one who stole the wing-pets from all the people in that town?"

The woman scowled. "They didn't know how to take care of a wing-pet! Wing-pets are supposed to be wise, intelligent friends, but they treated them like mere pets and toys. So I decided to take them away and give those buffoons their just desserts." She held up a syringe. "This contains a vial that changes them into these strong creatures. Aren't they amazing? With this wand, I control their every movement, and it was I who ordered them to attack the people who adopted them and destroy their homes."

"Look at them! They're scared! You're not doing anything right! At least those people treated their wing-pets well instead of keeping them locked up in cages and frightening them!" Lucy retorted angrily.

"I don't have to make you understand anything," the elderly woman said. "Anyway, I will have to dispose of you since I just told you everything. Amy, if you would, dear."

Lucy felt the air being squeezed out of her as the grip Amy had on her tightened considerably. "S-Stop…" she groaned. She felt like her bones were going to shatter at any moment. "Please…" She couldn't reach her keys at all since Amy's hand was in the way. If only…

There seemed to be some hesitation, as Amy let out a very unsure-sounding grunt. The grip around her slackened just a bit, and Lucy took the opportunity to reach her hand in and grab any key that she could find.

"What are you doing, Amy? Crush her!"

Thankfully, Lucy managed to free her hand before Amy tightened her hold around her waist again. Looking at the key she grabbed, she was delighted to see that it was Virgo. "Gate of the Virgin, I open thee! Virgo!"

In a burst of golden light, Virgo appeared on the ground beneath her. "Is it punishment time, Princess?"

"What in blazes is this-"

"Virgo, I need you to dig holes in the ground and trap all of these monsters, but don't hurt them!"

"As you wish, Princess." Virgo disappeared as she dug a hole. And then quite abruptly Lucy found herself being hurled through the air as Virgo dug a hole under Amy, causing her to fall in and let go of her from surprise. Lucy landed quite clumsily on the face near the cages where the other wing-pets were being kept. "Ouch…" she groaned, getting up.

"No, what are you doing to my friends?!" The old lady screeched. Lucy craned her neck to see that one by one, the wing-pets were all falling into the holes Virgo created, and some of them were struggling to get out, but to no avail. Their wings were much too small for them to fly, and since they were ball-shaped, they couldn't escape, try as they might.

"Don't worry, Virgo isn't going to hurt them, unlike you."

The woman flashed her livid eyes. Swiftly, she lifted her wand and pointed it at Lucy. The blonde felt an invisible force like a hand wrapping itself around her neck and strangling her. It lifted her off the ground, until she was hanging in mid-air which her mouth hanging open, trying desperately to gasp for air. Her throat was burning and her lungs were screaming for air. "You'll pay for hurting my friends," she threatened, and twisted the wand, so that the grip on Lucy's neck tightened two-fold.

Stars were swimming in Lucy's gaze, and she was about to slip into unconsciousness when she heard a loud shout and a scream tearing through the shocked woman's lips. In an instant her neck was freed and Lucy crumpled to the ground, gasping for air.

"Lucy! Are you alright?" Natsu asked, cradling her head.

"Y-Yeah…"

"Lucy, you don't look so good," Happy pointed out, fanning his paws in an effort to make her feel slightly better.

"You…" Natsu cracked his knuckles and began running towards the elderly woman at top speed. "Y-You wouldn't hurt an elderly lady… would you?" she asked with a pleading look in her eyes as she looked up at him from the ground.

"You hurt Lucy," he said simply, before throwing her up in the air and grabbing the wand in her hand that she was just about to use on him. He easily broke it in half, and caught the complaining woman with his free hand. She was struggling and trying to pull his hair out, so he knocked her out with sharp jab to the neck.

"Princess, I have trapped the creatures as you wished. If there's nothing else, I'll take my leave."

"Thank you, Virgo," Lucy nodded gratefully, and in a shower of golden sparkles, the maid was gone.

Lucy stood up and rubbed her sore neck as she went over to where Natsu was standing. "What happened to the monster both of you were fighting?"

"Oh that? It brought us here and then we saw you floating in mid-air and choking then we forgot all about it," Natsu said with a casual shrug. "Where did it go?"

Lucy frowned. "That monster was actually a wing-pet, you know."

His eyes widened. "What?"

"This old lady here turned them into these monsters using some kind of vial, so now we have to figure out how to turn them back…"

Just then, Happy called them. "Natsu! Lucy! Look!" They snapped their heads towards the cat who was now surrounded by cute, furry wing-pets. They were back to their original form and were now playing with Happy, showering him with happy licks and hugs. They mewled and purred and squeaked as they rubbed their heads against the laughing cat. "How did that happen?" Lucy wondered.

"Maybe it was that stick the lady was holding?"

Lucy smiled. "Well then, that settles things." She walked over to the cages and opened them, freeing the remaining wing-pets. They flew forward into her arms, causing her to fall backwards, but thankfully Natsu was there to catch her. He smiled at them. "They're pretty cute," he chuckled.

"We should get these wing-pets back to the owners for a good bath."

He grinned. "We should all get a bath too."

She narrowed her eyes at the boy, poking him in the chest with her elbow. "Not at my house."

Immediately, his smile turned down. "What? Come on, Lucy…"

"No!"

"But-"

"No buts! Both of you are not bathing in my house!"

"But we're getting our reward this time!" Natsu complained.

Lucy paused. That was true… "You're unusually well-behaved, Natsu... Usually you go around destroying everything in sight."

He scratched his head. "Well… at least the town wasn't destroyed."

She gave him an incredulous look. "What do you mean?"

Then her eyes traveled past his sheepish expression to the battlefield that was once a jungle. "Natsu…" she muttered darkly, and in an instant Natsu was running away with Happy trailing behind him. The wing-pets chased after them enthusiastically as a very murderous aura formed around the blonde.

Yeah, some things just never changed.

* * *

><p>AN: Yay this chapter was pretty fun to write ^~^ Hope you liked it! And I really want to thank **Melody233, rebma726, Guest **and **TandK4ever** for leaving a review—they really made my day haha! (: Don't really have much to say today haha umm.

If you don't mind, do leave a short review just to tell me what you thought about the chapter? :D They never fail to make my day! God bless and see you around~


	6. Chapter 6

The Blind Date: Chapter 6

Natsu was hanging out at the guild sparring with the guys as usual. Apparently, the men had decided to start an arm-wrestling tournament to decide who the strongest was in terms of pure physical strength. Elfman had been winning successively, beating Gajeel, Freed and Bickslow. Laxus was also faring very well; he wore a bored expression on his face as he defeated man after man.

At the moment, Natsu was at a deadlock with Gray. Neither of them was willing to give in an inch. With trembling arms, they began shooting insults at each other. "Give it up, Snowman, you're not going to win me."

"Says the one who can't move me an inch," Gray smirked.

"You aren't doing anything to me either!" Natsu argued hotly. He tried to apply more pressure, but the ice mage only returned the same amount of pressure and did not budge. Man, this guy was pretty tough, but definitely not as tough as him. Surely Natsu would win in a battle of stamina.

"Just give up, both of you. You can't win against me anyway," Gajeel jested with his mouth full of nails.

"Shut it, metal face, you just lost to Elfman!"

"It was a fluke!"

"A Man admits his loss!" Elfman roared in triumph, just as he won Wakaba. The middle-aged man gave a heavy sigh and returned to his seat where a disappointed Macao was. Both of them lost rather quickly. "I guess we're just too old for this sort of thing already, eh, Macao?" Wakaba chuckled.

"Yeah, leave it to the youngsters to show off," Macao agreed.

Five minutes passed. Ten minutes passed. Fifteen minutes passed. Still, Natsu and Gray weren't moving at all. But they were showing signs of tiring already. "Is the stripper getting tired already?"

"You wish, stink face. I'm just getting started."

"I'm all fired up now!" Natsu declared enthusiastically, eyes filled with determination. No way in Hell was he going to lose to this loser!

One minute later, he lost. Spectacularly.

Gray was gloating away and rubbing it in his face while Natsu demanded a rematch. They raised their right arms to punch the other, but like balloons, they seemed to deflate, their right arms having run out of strength completely.

"Now, now," Mirajane smiled, handing a glass of ice to Gray and a glass of hot chocolate to Natsu, "don't be too upset, Natsu. And you should reserve your strength since you'll be going on a job with Lucy soon, right?"

The dragon slayer took a gulp of his hot chocolate and shot daggers at Gray, who returned it evenly. "I'm not going to lose next time," he said.

"We'll see."

Some screaming over at the other end of the guild caught Natsu's attention and his head swiveled to where Lucy was. Cana, Wendy, Lisanna, Erza, Levy and Carla were surrounding her. Happy was as usual, hanging around Carla like a lost puppy. He didn't seem to be paying attention to the conversation at all.

Natsu found his eyes involuntarily settling on the blushing blonde who was currently answering their questions about bird-head. Damn, she really looked cute when she blushed…

Wait, what in the world was he talking about? This was Lucy, Lucy his best partner and best friend who had an amazing bed, who looked cute when she was pissed off at him and Happy, who smelled really nice after bathing, and-

Natsu shook his head violently. What were these thoughts now? He was acutely aware of how his heart was gradually picking up pace.

"—He has golden hair just like mine, and he has these amazing dark eyes that—_oh, _and you should see his crooked grin! He's so dreamy! And he's very humorous, he likes reading, and he's just about perfect!" he heard Lucy exclaim excitedly.

For some reason his eye was twitching in annoyance again. What was this? One of Lucy's mood swings? He never knew they could be contagious.

"Not bad," he heard Cana say in approval, "he sounds like a keeper. Have you two kissed yet?"

"W-Well…" Lucy was blushing again, her cheeks flushing a deep red that made her look absolutely beautiful-

_No weird thoughts, no weird thoughts! _

"Oi Natsu, is there something wrong with your head?" Gray asked, before adding, "Oh wait, it always had a problem."

"Shut it Gray, you wanna go?"

"Anytime, just don't cry when you lose."

"I'm not going to lose this time!"

This time, Natsu won Gray in their sparring, and the dragon slayer happily sat on top of Gray's back, squashing him and pinning him to the floor while he folded his arms across his chest and continued listening in to the girls' conversation using his sensitive ears.

"—excited for our date tonight! He said we'll be doing something fun at his place!"

"Is it really safe to be in his house alone? You still don't know him very well," Erza frowned, but Cana waved her concerns off casually. "It's fine, let him do whatever he wants. Lucy needs the experience anyway." The blonde's cheeks heated up in embarrassment as she frantically tried to protest against Cana's assumptions.

"I agree with Erza," Levy said, and Wendy piped in, "I don't think it's a very good idea to go alone either."

Lucy shrugged, patting the pouch containing her keys. "I've got my celestial spirits with me, and besides, Hugh is a gentleman, he won't try anything funny."

Cana wriggled her eyebrows while taking another shot of beer. "These types of guys have women running after them. Are you sure he won't try anything funny?"

The blonde frowned, and Natsu knew that she was getting offended. "I trust him, and besides, Hera wouldn't have introduced him to me if she knew that he was such a person."

"Okay, but in any case, do be careful. You're still a girl," Erza said.

"I know, I'll make sure to take care of myself, Erza. _Ah,_ what do I do? I'm so nervous for our date! I can't wait to see him already!" Lucy slapped her hands to her face, squeezing her cheeks together and flushing even deeper. Natsu wondered what on earth was going through that small head of hers. Then suddenly her eyes flickered over to meet Natsu's, who then hastily looked away, feeling his cheeks heat up slightly.

The dragon slayer was feeling a bit uncomfortable. Not because Gray was trying to throw him off of him and was currently digging his damn nails into his butt, but because Lucy was actually going to be in that creepy guy's house. Yes, Lucy was strong, no doubt about it, but still, he recognized that look in Hugh's eyes whenever he stared at Lucy.

It was the look of a predator.

"Natsu?"

His head jerked up to meet Lucy, and caused him to flinch back in surprise. "L-Lucy?"

Her brows creased in worry. "Are you alright? Your face looks a bit red." Then she looked downwards to see a groaning Gray. "Natsu, you're damn heavy, get off of me!"

"Natsu, get off of Gray."

"Not until you admit that I won!" he said, playfully pulling on his dark strands of hair.

"Ow! Quit it!"

"No!"

Lucy sighed. "Can we quickly pick a job? I want to be back in time for my date with Hugh."

"But I wanted to choose something fun for today," Natsu frowned.

"Try to cut down on the fun for one day? I don't want to be late or show up as a mess."

"Why not?"

"Because, he'll think I look bad."

"I think you look pretty all the time," Natsu blurted out, and immediately he flushed and looked the other way. What was with him? Saying such weird things wasn't like him at all!

Gray snorted unceremoniously and then with a huff, gave an unsuspecting Natsu a good punch in the side before standing up and throwing the dragon slayer down on the ground for good measure. "Go flirt somewhere else," he called behind his back.

"We're not flirting!" Both of them shouted simultaneously. The duo exchanged glances and chuckled. "Anyway, let's go pick a job," Lucy smiled, getting up and holding a hand out to the pink-haired boy, who gladly took it and got to his feet.

"There's a lot of stuff to choose from…" he murmured, scanning the multitude of flyers that were stuck on the request board. "I think this one looks good," he said, tearing one out.

"I'm not sure if we'll be able to complete this before six…" Lucy pursed her lips. A picture of a group of five silhouettes was printed on the flyer, with the word _"WANTED"_ printed in bold on top of it. It seemed they were a group of bandits who had been going around robbing homes. Apparently, they were rather skilled mages, hence a number of wizards hadn't been able to nab them successfully.

Natsu grinned. "Don't worry, this will be a piece of cake. Besides, it's not like you can do anything about it if I choose this one."

She rolled her eyes. "Yes, yes, your Highness Dragneel. Let's get going then. Mirajane!"

Fortunately for Natsu, the traveling time by train was only half an hour, so they managed to reach in no time. According to the flyer, the bandits had the habit of striking in broad daylight, unlike your usual every day thief.

Natsu, Lucy and Happy were hiding behind a tree along the open, deserted path, lying in wait for the bandits to come. Many citizens had directed them to that path as it was smooth and easiest to carry the crazy amount of loot those bandits brought back every day.

"How long is this going to take?" Lucy groaned, feeling restless already. The afternoon sun was scorching hot and she was perspiring like a pig.

"Beats me," Natsu shrugged. "Lucy, stop pushing me."

"I'm not pushing you, you're just taking up too much space."

"You chose this tiny tree, so it's your problem."

"Natsu, Lucy, there's so much space up here!" Happy exclaimed, not so subtly rubbing it in their faces.

"Happy! Carry me up there too!" Lucy said.

"But Lucy, you're heavy," the cat responded. The blonde resisted the urge to climb the tree and attempt to attack the flying feline, because for one, she didn't know how to climb a tree, and for two, he would just fly away when she jumped at him and she'd land on her face on the ground.

"Move over, Natsu! It's hot!" Lucy was trying to keep her head out of the Sun and into the soothing shade of the tree, and every time the Sun's rays made contact with her skin, she resembled a vampire and hissed, whining and complaining like a little brat.

"Some Sun is good for your skin," he retorted, not budging.

"I'm going to get sun burnt and the last thing I need is to look like a crab for my date!"

"But crabs look good…" Drool began to form in his mouth.

"I'm not food! And that's not my point! My point is I don't want to get sun burnt!" She pushed him harder, making him fall over on his side, and then she used her butt to shove him aside and into the sun's rays. "Hey, that was my spot," he frowned, moving back, but Lucy put up a hand to stop him.

"Let me enjoy the shade for a while," she pleaded.

"No."

"But you're a fire dragon slayer! The heat shouldn't bother you!"

"Yeah, but that was my spot."

"Natsu."

"Lucy."

"Natsu."

"Lucy."

"You can't make me move, dragon," she harrumphed resolutely, folding her arms across her chest and shooting him a challenging look.

"Oh?" Natsu's lips curled up into a playful smirk. "We'll see about that." He watched as Lucy's mouth hung open. Clearly she was regretting challenging him like that, since there was no way he was actually going to lose to her in a physical battle. But of course, being the stubborn woman she was, she began flailing her arms about in attempt to hit him when he wrapped his arms around her slender waist and picked her up easily.

"Put me down! Natsuuuuu!" she cried, and was expecting to get cooked when she found herself still under the shade. Then she realized that Natsu had put her down so that she was sitting in his lap.

"This way we'll both enjoy the shade," he said. The boy was secretly glad that Lucy's back was facing him, that way she wouldn't be able to see his blush. His hands were still around her waist and he leaned forward, snuggling his head in her hair. Lucy was such a drama queen, she wasn't sweating that much and she still smelled great, somehow. He could catch the whiff of lavender in her hair from her morning bath and inhaled deeply, relishing in the sweet fragrance.

He smiled as Lucy naturally leaned back against him, resting her head against his chest and sighing deeply. But then after a while she said, "Natsu, you're hot."

He cocked an eyebrow. "I know?"

"No, I mean you're really warm. Could you cut down on the fire thing for a moment?"

"I'm just naturally hot," he chuckled.

In response, her fist pounded on his thigh. "Since when did you become such a narcissist?"

"So you don't think I'm hot?" he heard himself ask. What had gotten into him? He never asked such weird questions to her before, but there was a growing curiosity to know what she actually thought about him, not just as a guild member or a partner, but also as a man.

She paused hesitantly, seeming unsure of how to answer his question. Natsu's cheeks burned and he opened his mouth to take the question back and brush it off as a joke when she answered, "Well, I guess you're not too bad."

He laughed a little too loudly, scratching the back of his head as his chest swelled with happiness. "Then, what about me?" she asked.

"What about you?"

"Do you think I'm pretty?"

He stared at her head. Wasn't it obvious that she was? After all, he had noticed one too many times the stares that other men gave her when she wasn't paying attention, and the fact that she had the habit of wearing short skirts that rode up to her mid-thigh and tops that showed off a fair bit of her cleavage didn't help in attracting all the wrong kinds of attention. Yes, she was beautiful, but he preferred it when she didn't show off so much skin. It'd always been quite… unsettling to see other men stare at her like that.

"Hey Natsu, answer my question."

"O-Oh right," he said, feeling the heat spread to his neck as she snuggled against him. "Well, I told you earlier, right? I think you're beautiful."

To his surprise, he found the tip of Lucy's ears turn a light shade of pink. "Lucy, you're blushing."

"N-No I'm not!" she denied a little too quickly. "It's just the weather!" She began fanning herself with her hands. "Yeah, it's getting really hot here…"

"Do you think Hans is hot?"

"For goodness' sake, Natsu, you're horrible at remembering names! It's Hugh!"

"I'm good at remembering names! I just… take a while to remember."

"In other words, you're bad at it," she said in a flat tone.

"Just answer my question. What do you think about him?" Some part of Natsu was mentally slapping himself for bringing bird-head into the conversation, but the other was dying to know what she thought about bird-head compared to him.

"Hugh is very handsome," she replied in a dreamy voice. For some reason, a small lump formed in Natsu's throat as a frown made its way onto his face.

"Natsu, Lucy, they're here!" Happy called, snapping both of them back to attention.

They peeked their heads around the tree to see a group of five men walking down the path. One of them, a bald, man was rolling a large, jiggling cart. The others surrounded him as they went on, keeping sharp eyes out for potential attackers.

"How are we supposed to do this?" Lucy hissed in Natsu's ear.

He tried to suppress the tingling feeling in his belly and fixed a grin on his face. "I say we go right up and beat them! Let's go!"

"Aye sir!"

"Wait, Natsu!"

"Who's that?!" One of the five bandits yelled at the sound of the commotion the three Fairy Tail mages were making. At once they stopped the cart and took their positions surrounding it, looking out for attackers, just as Natsu tripped and fell onto the path on his face with Lucy on top of him and Happy sandwiched in between.

"Wucy… You're heawy…" Happy complained as Natsu groaned. Lucy hastily got off and dusted herself off, ready to scold them for being so reckless when suddenly a sharp, gleaming blade rested on her neck, threatening to slit her throat at any moment. Her right arm was caught in a deadlock at the same time.

"Speak! Who are you and what are you doing here?" A gruff voice sounded by Lucy's ear, and she could catch the faint smell of rotten eggs in his breath. Resisting the urge to gag, she tried to elbow the man in his chest but he grabbed hold of her other arm and twisted it, making her cry out in pain. "Don't try anything with me, girlie, I'm not very patient," he growled, applying more pressure on the blade, causing it to cut into her skin slightly.

In the meantime, two other men were holding their swords out, pointing them at Natsu and Happy's throats respectively. Natsu was lying flat on his stomach as the blade threatened to slit through his throat the moment he made any move to attack. Happy was pinned to the tree they had been hiding behind and was staring wide-eyed at his attacker.

"They're Fairy Tail wizards, boss!" the bandit with a red, Afro hairdo said from where he was guarding the loot.

The man standing behind Lucy narrowed his eyes at the three wizards and snorted. "What were those stupid villagers thinking? Fairy Tail wizards ain't nothing but a big guild with very few good wizards. I'll bet these are small fry trying to get a little money on their jobs."

He twisted Lucy's arm even more, making her shriek. "Quit it, baldie! Let Lucy go!" Natsu yelled, fury welling up in him. In an instant, the bandit holding a blade to his throat was on the ground, writhing in pain at his burnt feet. Natsu got to his feet and landed a swift kick on the man pinning his feline buddy to a tree and immediately faced the head of the bandits.

"So, you're the leader?" Natsu scowled, cracking his knuckles in preparation for battle.

The man was not fazed, however. "It looks like you'll be troublesome. Red! Green! Come here and deal with this bastard. If he tries anything I'll kill this blondie."

"Natsu," Lucy gasped in a timid voice.

"I'm not going to let you hurt Lucy!" The dragon slayer raised a fist, aiming it at the bald man, but sensed something coming towards him and immediately dodged. His head ducked just in time as an elongated arm zoomed past him. It retracted, returning to a younger-looking boy with deep green hair in a Mohawk hairstyle.

"Your opponents will be us, boy," he said. Without a second's hesitation, he ran forward and with his elastic body, aimed punches and kicks at Natsu. His movements were swift and rather difficult to predict. His limbs were nimble, able to throw curve punches and aim attacks at Natsu's blind spots so he had little time to react.

Natsu flew backwards as he suffered a hard punch to the cheek. Then the green-haired boy raised a leg and extended it, curling it upwards so that it crept up behind Natsu who was still trying to dodge a punch and struck him hard on the head, sending him pummeling to the ground.

"You bastard," Natsu muttered as he got up, swiping the tiny sand particles off his face. The green-haired boy aimed a foot at his head, but his hand was faster. In an instant, the boy's foot was in his hand, and couldn't retract it no matter how much he tried. Then Natsu leapt to his feet and yanked on it, forcing the boy forward and then he raised his fist. "Iron fist of the fire dragon!"

There was no time to block the attack. The next second, the green-haired bandit was sent flying through the air and landed hard on a tree trunk. He slumped to the ground, unconscious from the impact.

Natsu turned and found that the bald man was currently running towards the cart, with Lucy in tow. He had sheathed his sword and was pulling Lucy along with long chestnut hair that was now growing out of his head. Lucy was rendered helpless and Natsu could see she was struggling to reach her keys and do something about that bandit. He was about to go over when suddenly bullet-like things began to pelt him.

The little things made contact with his arms and legs, burning them and making him wince. He jumped back and opened his mouth to release vortex of fire from his mouth, melting the bullets and causing them to vanish. When the smoke cleared, he saw a redhead standing in front of him gathering rocks and placing them in his mouth, chewing on them hungrily.

Apparently some people were more ridiculous eaters than Natsu.

"Why would you eat rocks? That's gross," Natsu said as fire engulfed his fists.

The redhead said nothing, and only stood up, dusting himself off. Then in a flash, his cheeks were full and fat like that of a chipmunk's, and jumped up. The next thing Natsu knew, more bullets were coming his way. He quickly dodged and ran as the bullets followed him. He looked back and found that the bullets were actually coming from that redhead's mouth.

He hid behind trees, but the bullets penetrated the tree trunks and would only stop when they hit the ground. Using his fists, Natsu barreled himself forward so that he was faster and when he gained a reasonable lead on the redhead, released another swirling vortex of fire and caused the things to disappear. The redhead was out of ammo and standing in front of him now.

"Not bad…" he muttered. "But what if I do this?" With lightning speed, he stuffed a nearby boulder into his mouth and then his cheeks turned red. "Fire bomb!" He spat out large, flaming pieces of boulders at Natsu, but to his surprise, the dragon slayer didn't dodge. Instead, a sucking sound could be heard. The flames slowly vanished from the boulders and Natsu jumped up, avoiding them as they crashed into the ground.

"Thanks for the meal," Natsu grinned, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. "Now how about I teach you a lesson for messing with us Fairy Tail wizards?" He banged his fists together and they lit up in flames. Then he lunged forward, using his flames to boost his speed. "Fire Dragon's Wing Attack!" With two long streaks of blazing orange flames, he brought them down on the cowering redhead.

A measly few seconds later, the redhead was utterly defeated and nearly all the trees within a forty-meter radius were wiped out.

Then Natsu turned back to where the loot was originally, only to find that Lucy and the bald man were already gone. And Happy was nowhere in sight either.

"Lucy! Happy!" He yelled, taking off down the path in furious pursuit. It didn't take too long to find Lucy and the bald man since they hadn't been able to make off too far and Lucy was currently engaged in battle against the head of the bandits, alongside Happy.

Loke was currently fighting the man together with Lucy, who was expertly swinging her whip at her captor. Happy remained by the loot, guarding it and cheering Lucy on. Loke was currently exchanging physical blows with the bald man. He was trying to get his hands on his sword, but had no time to do so. Loke's fist lit up with a bright yellow glow, and then he used an upper cut, knocking him backwards as his fist connected with his chin.

"This'll teach you to mess with us! Lucy kick!" she huffed, landing her signature kick squarely on the man's chest, causing him to fly backwards and knock onto a tree trunk.

"Thanks, Loke!" she grinned, placing her whip back onto her belt.

The celestial spirit smirked, pushing his sunglasses up his nose. "Anytime, Lucy. Next time, call me when you want to go on a date, alright?" Then he disappeared back to the spirit world while the blonde rolled her eyes.

"Oi Lucy, you okay?" Natsu asked as he ran up towards her. Happy flew towards him, grinning. "I was there to protect Lucy, so she's fine!"

Lucy frowned and pointed at Happy accusingly. "You were just sitting there the whole time! If anything, I was the one protecting you!"

"If I didn't throw a rock at that guy's head, you wouldn't have gotten Loke's key!"

"Because of you, he fell and my keys got knocked aside! Aquarius will kill me the next time I summon her!"

"Tell her to bring some fish when you do," he said in a dreamy tone.

"Happy!"

Natsu crossed his arms behind his head, laughing as they both argued. He was about to chip in as well, when he noticed some movement out of the corner of his eye. In a flash his hands were on Lucy's shoulders, pushing her down a little too roughly to the ground as a sword zoomed past her head.

"Natsu! What was that for?" she whined, but Natsu wasn't listening. He nudged Happy, who understood and dragged Lucy away by the shirt. Then he faced the now standing bald man who was wiping his bloodstained chin.

"You kids have some guts… But you're going to pay for this!" A magic circle appeared in front of him and the leaves at his feet began to float in the air restlessly, but before he could even do anything, Natsu was already in front of him, boldly grabbing him by the collar.

"Bastard…" he muttered under his breath darkly, "You're gonna pay for hurting Lucy! Blazing Fire Dragon Fist!" With both fists set alight, he began a series of punches moving so quickly that Lucy and Happy couldn't follow his movements with their eyes. His fists made satisfying contact with the bandit, and Natsu made sure that each hit hurt as much as possible. Damn him, for doing that to Lucy… Just remembering the way his sword had dug into her neck made him even angrier.

Natsu had no idea when he was planning to stop. But he did when he heard Lucy call his name for him to stop, and her arms appeared by his waist, trying to hold him back. Despite himself and the anger in him screaming to continue, he stopped and he watched as the bandit slumped down, bruised and battered. He was out for the count, and appeared that he would take a long time to nurse those fresh injuries of his.

Natsu panted and shook his arms, feeling the ache in them already. "Natsu, why were you trying to kill him?!" Lucy demanded, pulling away from him and forcing him to turn around to look at her. Natsu found himself frowning at the loss of contact. "I wasn't trying to kill him," he muttered, looking away so he wouldn't meet Lucy's disapproving gaze.

"The way you were attacking him, if I didn't stop you, you might well have killed him! What's gotten into you?" Her question sounded much softer as her hand rested on his shoulder. "Are you alright?"

He cocked an eyebrow and met her brown orbs. "That should be my question." Then he tipped her chin up, allowing him to have a better look at the cut on her neck. "Did he hurt you anywhere else?"

She brushed his hand aside with a smile. "I'm fine, it's just a small cut. I'll just need to put on a plaster when I get back. And, thanks for saving me earlier."

Natsu grinned and suddenly felt his heart pick up pace. "No problem!"

"Anyway," she sighed, wrinkling her nose at the dirt on her clothes and her disheveled hair, "we should get going. I want to be in time for my date."

"You're going to his house alone?" Natsu asked.

"Yeah, how did you know?"

"I overheard you girls talking at the guild. Are you sure you should be going alone? I don't trust that guy…"

Lucy exhaled and placed her hands on his shoulders firmly. "I know you two didn't exactly have a good start, but Hugh is a really sweet guy. I'm sure you'll like him once you get to know him better."

"But still-"

"Don't worry about me, if he tries anything weird—which I highly doubt—I'll have my keys with me."

Natsu was still rather concerned and opened his mouth again to say something when Lucy wrapped her arms around his neck and hugged him. "Thanks for worrying, Natsu. I appreciate it," she said softly.

He smiled, forgetting everything else and hugged her back. Her petite frame made her seem so delicate in his arms, and her skin was so soft, he wished he could hug her like that all the time.

"You llllike each other," Happy chuckled from where he was sitting on the cart.

Immediately the two of them pulled away and their cheeks flushed hotly. "No, we don't!"

* * *

><p>AN: Heehee this chapter was sooo much fun to write! I just love these two so much! :D Hope you enjoyed this chapter and do leave a review, if you have the time to spare~ (:

And I want to thank **PandaPiggy, Melody233, Guest, FDsecretart, Monkey-chan123, Leeshyloo, Blugal112, TookACookie **and** TandK4ever** for leaving real sweet reviews the previous chapter! They were really encouraging haha thank you guys so much! /hugs/

Love all of you who favorited and followed this story as well! Thank you for 100 follows lovelies! God bless and see you all soon hopefully! And a shout-out to Australian peeps—I'll be heading over in a couple days for a family trip hehe :D Can't wait!


	7. Chapter 7

The Blind Date: Chapter 7

Lucy was in high spirits, humming a joyful tune to herself as she pranced towards the café she was meeting Hugh at. She had been pumped up for their date for a long time, and she was bubbling with anticipation as to what Hugh had planned for their date this time. Many things were running across her mind, but none of them seemed to be what he was planning. That secretive smirk of his had been etched into her brain the whole time and the stingy mage wouldn't even give her a tiny hint about what they would be doing. Oh well, at least she'd be finding out soon! Boy, she couldn't wait!

As she passed by a shop, she caught her reflection in the window and tried to smooth out her hair. She hadn't had sufficient time to get ready since it had been a mad rush back home and out of the house in order to make it in time for the date. Natsu and Happy had followed her back to her house and napped on the floor by her bed as she got ready. It didn't help that they were taking extra space on the floor so she had to sidestep the snoring pair as she scuttled to and fro around the room. And it made it less convenient for her to change in her room.

She was seriously contemplating buying a bed for them with her own money just so they would stop staying over so often. Apparently Hugh was rather bothered by the fact that she often had another guy in her bedroom. And to be honest, she'd feel the same way if Hugh had another woman in his bedroom all the time too.

As the blonde neared the café, she spotted the man and hurried over towards him. "Sorry, Hugh. I was delayed by our job earlier… Did you wait long?"

He shook his head and flashed her a smile. "Not at all. I just arrived, actually. Come on, let's go." He took her hand and pulled her forward. Lucy swooned internally at the contact. They really were a couple now! Finally, no more dreaming about holding hands with her one and only while observing other couples have the time of their lives; this was now her reality!

"What are we going to do at your place?" she asked, heart fluttering in thrill.

"It's a secret, Lucy. I'm not going to spoil the surprise for you."

"Okay… Just give me a hint?"

He smirked and glanced back at her, giving her hand a small squeeze. "It's going to involve my bed."

Her eyes widened. He didn't actually mean… She let out a timid gasp and hastily tore her hand from his before taking a step away from him. "I-I don't…"

Hugh stared at her as if she'd just grown two heads. His lips parted in an unspoken question but then something seemed to click in his head and then he burst out laughing. "Lucy, what are you thinking about?"

"H-Huh?"

"Get your mind out of the gutter, I'm not going to do anything like that to you… unless you actually want me to..?"

Her face turned a dark shade of scarlet as she shook her head frantically. "N-No! I wasn't thinking anything of the sort! Nothing like that at all! Yeah!"

"Really? Your face looks awfully red…" he muttered with a mischievous look on his face. He stepped closer to her, making her even more flustered.

"It's the heat! The heat! I swear, it's getting really hot these days…"

"It's twenty degrees out though."

"I don't feel cold." _In fact, I feel like I'm on fire. _

"But you're shivering." Hugh stopped, took off his leather jacket and draped it over her shoulders. "I wouldn't want you to catch a cold, you know." With that said, he pressed his lips to her forehead.

Lucy felt like she was going to spontaneously combust and explode into a million pieces. He grabbed her hand and tugged her forward gently, snapping out of her daze. "Come on, we'll feel warmer in my house. It's just around the corner."

"O-Okay…"

Very soon, they arrived at the doorstep of his apartment. Hugh let go of her hand to open the door, leaving her slightly disappointed at the loss of contact. Then he gestured her to come in as he turned on the lights. His apartment was very spacious and neat—nothing at all like Natsu's. There was a red loveseat in the living room, with a small glass table in front of it, standing on a black carpet. Newspapers and magazines were stacked on top of it. Right in front of it was a small fireplace. Lucy was impressed. His house was so classy and stunning.

"Wow, your place looks great," Lucy breathed, taking a seat on the red loveseat as Hugh gestured for her to.

"Thanks. I spent extra time clearing it up just for you," he winked. "Anything you'd like to drink?"

"Water please," she smiled.

"Water for the beautiful lady, got it." He made his way towards the island, grabbed two mugs from it, pouring water in. Then he handed one to Lucy who accepted it gratefully while he drank from it. "So, what are we going to do?" she asked, gazing at him over her mug.

"We'll have to go to my room for that."

Lucy nearly choked on her water. "Y-You were serious about that?"

He stared at her with a raised brow. "Of course. Don't worry, you'll feel good. We'll be lying down the whole time, you just need to make sure you don't fall asleep, because I know my bed is comfortable."

"B-But I'm not ready for-"

"Oh hell yes, you are." In a swift motion Lucy found herself flung over his back as he marched towards the small hallway. There were two doors, and he opened the one on the left. "Put me down! Hugh!" she shrieked, pounding his back. He only chuckled deeply in response before flinging her down on the bed.

Her head landed on the pillows softly and when she opened her eyes, her voice caught in her throat. Hugh was on top of her and he was gazing down at her with amusement gleaming in his eyes. "You looked like you couldn't wait for the surprise so…"

"No!" Lucy squeezed her eyes shut and pushed him off of her with both arms. She was expecting him to be extremely difficult to push off, but he easily rolled over and when she opened her eyes, she found him lying down beside her. Lucy frantically tried to get up, but Hugh pushed her back down with one arm. "Woah there, Lucy. I was just joking."

"You don't kid around like that!" She flushed, hitting his chest as he laughed. He caught her wrists and stroked the back of her right hand with his thumb in supposed assurance. "Sorry, your reactions are just too cute, babe."

Her cheeks heated up and she quickly retracted her hands. "You're so…"

"Sly? I get that a lot," he winked. "Anyway, watch this. Hugh grinned, pointing to the ceiling above them. Then his right hand reached below his bed and he hit a switch with a small 'click' sound.

Within a split second, the plain ceiling transformed into a starry galaxy. Swirls of purple and blue complemented the light orange hue of the setting. White, sparkling dots were scattered across the entire "sky", and they seemed to be winking at Lucy. The girl felt her lips stretch into a smile at the sight. "It's beautiful, Hugh."

"I thought you'd like it," he chuckled, holding her hand and intertwining their fingers. "I bought this recently, but even though I look at it every day, I don't seem to get sick of it."

"Is this some form of magic?"

"No, it's just a projector." He pointed to a silver box resting in the centre of the headboard. It had a shining circle in the middle and was pointing upwards so the light shone onto the ceiling. "But I think it can be a form of magic too, if you want to be romantic."

"I like romantic."

"Of course you do. That's why you're dating me, right?" He leaned in and closed the gap between their lips. Lucy's heartbeat became erratic in a matter of seconds as she kissed him back, wrapping her arms around his neck and pulling him closer. Kissing Hugh always made her feel like her insides were going to explode. Warmth would pool in her belly and she would feel giddy with excitement.

He pushed his tongue into her mouth, exploring its sugary recesses as it danced with hers. Lucy was getting more and more breathless by the minute. Then she felt his hand slowly travel up her leg, tracing lazy patterns over it as it went along, and his movements sent shivers down her spine, but at the same time she felt herself beginning to feel scared. So she brought a hand down on his to stop him and pulled away. "S-Sorry… I'm not…"

"No worries. We'll just take things one step at a time," he smiled slightly, though she could sense slight vexation from him as he got off her.

"Thanks for planning this, Hugh. It was really sweet," the girl murmured as she squeezed his hand.

"That wasn't all of it, actually." To a confused Lucy, Hugh reached below his bed—it seemed he kept everything under his bed—and pulled out an impressive bouquet of red roses. "We can't have a date without flowers, you know. A lovely lady like you deserves something romantic like that, even if it is cheesy."

The astounded blonde gasped softly and inhaled the sweet fragrance of the roses that were in full bloom. The flower arrangement had been done splendidly, and the wrapping paper was so smooth against her fingers. "It's cheesy, but thank you so much! I love it!"

"I thought you would," Hugh chuckled, brushing her cheek with the back of his hand as he stared at her. He laughed again when she averted his gaze quickly out of bashfulness. "Well then… how about we do something else?" he asked. "This is the end of my surprise—I'll try to think of something better next time; I know this wasn't much."

"No, this was perfect. Thank you, Hugh," Lucy grinned. "Hmm… Do you have any books here? I would love to see them!"

The man scratched the back of his head sheepishly. "Sorry, I don't actually have books around here…"

The girl was appalled. "But I thought you liked books? I thought maybe you'd have some at your house…"

"I did some cleaning not too long ago… Must have accidentally thrown them out? I'll be buying more some other time, anyway," he said.

"Oh…" was all she had to say. How could someone _accidentally_ discard a book? Books were treasures, as far as she knew.

"Anyway, how about going out for some dinner? It's almost seven."

"Sure. You choose the place this time, since I'm always the one choosing."

"Hmm…" he rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Well then, how about some Chinese?"

"Sounds good!" she chirped, grabbing her bag from the loveseat as they headed out of his room.

* * *

><p>After dinner, Hugh got a phone call and left immediately after their meal, saying he had something to do. Since there was some time, Lucy decided to do some grocery shopping. And for some reason, she'd bought some extra food for Natsu and Happy. Maybe it was just out of habit, since they were always complaining about being hungry, and those two were hardly able to take care of themselves, so she decided to help them get some stuff.<p>

Now Lucy was regretting her decision, because she had numerous bags hanging off her arms. They were so heavy too! Well, at least now she knew how Natsu had felt carrying those bags for her around the entire day… Warmth flooded her chest as a smile lit up her face. The things that guy did…

She reached into her pocket for her house key, and quickly unlocked the door. "Hey Natsu, Happy! Are you here?" She walked in and kicked off her shoes before placing the bags on the table. There was no one in the house. That was odd… Natsu and Happy had been sleeping here when she left. Then again, it was quite late already. Perhaps they'd gone home. Lucy twisted her lips wryly. She didn't feel too tired, and since there was some time, why not?

So she grabbed a few of the bags meant for Natsu and Happy and was out the door again.

It didn't take long for her to reach their modest house. The lights were on, which meant they were at home. Grinning, she walked up the path and knocked on the door, only to find it unlocked.

"Huh?" Lucy pushed the door open, and the sounds of Natsu and Happy's laughter was magnified instantly. But there was also the sound of a _woman's _laughter, which caught the girl utterly by surprise.

"This smell… Lucy?" she heard Natsu say, and then the door swung open. Lucy barely had time to catch her balance as she yelped in shock. Thankfully, Natsu caught her before she could land on the floor on her face. "Lucy, what are you doing here?" he asked as he steadied her.

"Oh, Lucy's here! How was your date with Hugh?" Happy chimed in as he walked over, grabbing one of the bags and peering in. "Oh look! It's fish! It's for me, right, Lucy?"

"Our date was great," she smiled. "And yeah, it's for you, Happy. Go put it in the kitchen… It's not messy is it?"

"Nah, we cleaned up together with Grace today," Natsu said as he took the bags from Lucy's arms, revealing red marks all over them. Lucy stepped in and noticed Grace sitting on the couch with a cup of tea in her hands. "Hello, Grace!"

"Ah, it's nice to see you, Lucy," the girl nodded, standing up. "Shall I get you some tea?"

"No, it's fine… You're the guest, right?"

"Well, we both are, and it's no problem at all! You look tired, too."

"It's been a long day," Lucy sighed. She looked around and found Natsu trying to stuff the groceries in their plastic bags into the modest fridge. "Natsu!" she groaned, marching over and slapping his hands away. "Hey!" he complained, rubbing the back of his hand.

"You can't just squash the things in like that!" she chided, taking them out and setting them on the counter. "I'll put them in for you."

"Wait." Suddenly he reached over and pulled her arm towards him. "Did you get all these marks from carrying the bags?"

"Yeah… why?"

"Do they hurt?" Natsu was staring at her arms like they were some kind of odd objects.

"No, they don't, except my arms are a little sore… They'll go away after a while. You would know, since you've carried those bags for me before… How did you even carry them for the whole day anyway?" Her lips curled upwards.

"I'm just strong like that," he smirked.

"And yet you lost to Gray in arm-wrestling."

"That was just once! I'm not losing to him next time!"

Lucy laughed at his outburst. "I'm sure you'll win the next time."

He huffed and crossed his arms over his chest. "Why did you buy this all of a sudden though? I thought you were on a date with Hugh?"

"He had to leave early because he had something on... Wait…" She jumped in glee at the realization. "You finally remembered his name! Natsu! You finally remembered!"

"I told you I was good at remembering names!"

"No, you're not."

"Yes I am!"

"You called me Luigi once!"

"You still remember?"

"Of course I do! I was so insulted that you couldn't remember my name at the time," she said. "Well anyway, I wasn't tired, so I guess this is just a thank-you for that time… Besides, you and Happy need someone to take care of you."

"Lucy! Your tea is ready!" Grace called from the living room.

"I'll be there in a minute!" she replied, and was about to continue packing the groceries when Natsu took her wrist and stopped her. "Natsu?"

"You're tired, just leave this to me."

"But-"

"Hey, I'm not a kid anymore, I can take care of myself," he grinned, spinning the raw cabbage in his hand. "Go on."

Sighing, the woman patted him on the shoulder and headed out to where Grace was standing. She handed the tea to her. "Thanks, Grace."

"You're welcome."

"Thanks for the fish, Lucy!" Happy said happily as he chewed on a big, raw fish.

"You're welcome, Happy. Just stop calling me fat from now on."

"Aye!" Man, it was so easy to bribe this cat! Maybe she should do this more often, and soon he'd be hailing her as queen. The very thought brought a very smug expression on her face. Just imagining him bowing down to her and showering her with compliments already felt so gratifying.

"Um, Lucy?" Grace called, waving a hand in front of her face.

"Huh? O-Oh, sorry about that," she laughed sheepishly.

"No need to apologize… I was just asking where you went today. You look worn out," the silver-haired woman pointed out in concern.

"Natsu and I went on a job today, and I just got back from a date with Hugh. I don't feel that tired, though."

"I see…"

"So Grace, what brings you here?" Lucy asked.

"Oh, I made some cupcakes earlier but there were too many, so I decided to bring some here for Natsu and Happy. I'm glad they liked it," she grinned, patting Happy's furry head.

"Aye! Grace makes the best cupcakes!"

"Thank you!"

Lucy couldn't help but feel her spirits dip slightly. Sure, she wasn't the best baker in the world, but that other time she had really put her heart and soul into making those cupcakes for the guild…

Suddenly Lucy felt a hand on her shoulder. "What are you making that face for?"

"Natsu! Oh, um, nothing!"

"Really?"

"I think I should take my leave soon, it's getting terribly late," Grace said, standing up. She set her teacup on the table and took her bag. "I'd love to come over another time!"

"Grace, how about sleeping over here? I'm sure Natsu wouldn't mind!" Happy chuckled.

Lucy frowned. Natsu wouldn't mind?

"Yeah, why not?" he grinned. "Lucy could stay over too… Oh, I know! How about we all go to Lucy's house?"

"Absolutely not!" Lucy gave the dragon slayer a good smack to the head.

"I appreciate the offer, but I really must go… The last time I stayed out too late, my brother gathered many of his friends in order to find me. I wouldn't want to worry him again like the previous time."

"Huh. Then I should escort you home," Natsu suggested.

"I'll be fine, I don't want to trouble you…"

"But it's so late."

"Um-"

"I know!" Happy said. "I'll bring Grace home, and Natsu, you stay here with Lucy! She might want to go home soon so it'd be good if you stay with her just in case."

"But I can take care of myself fine!" Lucy argued, though Happy was already on his way out the door together with Grace. "Goodbye, Natsu! I look forward to seeing you again!"

"Yeah, me too!" he waved.

"Bye, Grace!" Lucy smiled, waving after her. The door closed behind the two of them.

And then an awkward silence began to settle over the two of them. Lucy felt a little nervous for some reason. Maybe it was because it felt a little odd to be alone with Natsu after the incessant teasing by the guild. She stole a glance at the dragon slayer and noticed that he was deep in thought. "What are you thinking about, Natsu?" she asked.

He jerked his head up towards her. "Huh?"

She couldn't help but giggle at the baffled look on his face. "Nothing… I was just wondering why Grace was here in your house. I was a little surprised to see that you weren't in my room when I went back just now."

"Oh… Happy and I were waiting for you to come back, but you didn't so we decided to head back first before trying again. But then we found Grace waiting outside so we invited her in and she gave us cupcakes! Man, her cupcakes were amazing!"

"So I've heard…"

He scrutinized her face for a moment, before a frown etched onto his face. "Like I said before, stop making that face, Lucy."

"What face?"

"This face. You look better when you smile."

Her eyes widened at the sudden compliment. "What?"

Their eyes met and immediately he looked away, with the hint of a light red dusting over his cheeks. "N-Nothing… Grace's cupcakes were great… You should make those cupcakes of yours sometime too…"

She raised her eyebrows in delight as he paused slightly. "I kind of like yours better…"

Lucy couldn't help the grin forming on her face. "How about baking tomorrow, then?"

"W-What? Tomorrow?"

"Mhmm! At my place! We could buy the ingredients together! But first, I'll need to find that cookbook… I know I put it somewhere… If I remember correctly, we'll need three eggs, some vanilla essence, coloring, icing sugar- but then we could try another recipe, like the cookies and cream flavor! I bet they'd taste really good… …"

Natsu's chuckle brought her out of her thoughts and she ceased her mumblings. "What's so funny?"

"Nothing, you just look cute when you're excited."

Lucy stared at him, conscious of the fact that her face was beginning to heat up. "Th-Thanks…" she stammered. Why was her heart beating so fast now? The first and only reason that came up in her head seemed to make her feel even more flustered.

She couldn't possibly like Natsu, could she?

No, that was impossible. There was no doubting those sensations running through her skin when Hugh was kissing her or the way she got so excited whenever she was near Hugh. Surely this was because Natsu was just complimenting her, which he hardly ever did. Yeah, it had to be that way.

But there was another voice in the back of her mind saying otherwise. _"If you didn't like him, what was that sour feeling you felt when you saw Grace in his house?"_

Hormones. This was definitely the work of her accursed hormones.

It just had to be.

It was… right?

Lucy felt her will waver when Natsu flashed her that same old, charming grin of his and grabbed her hand, pulling her gently towards the door. "It's late, let's get you home now."

She swallowed thickly, and stared at the hand on her wrist. The warmth from his hand seemed to be spreading up her arm and towards her chest, stomach, neck and head. What was this?

"Oi, you're not getting a fever, are you?" he asked worriedly, suddenly stopping to rest the back of his hand on her forehead.

She leaned back and pushed his hand lightly away from her. "I'm fine…"

"Your body feels kind of hot… Here, take this." He took off the vest he was wearing and draped it over her shoulders. He tilted his head and stared at it, frowning. "That isn't really helping…"

"You really don't have to, Natsu. I feel fine-" Lucy was cut off when Natsu wrapped his precious scarf around her neck and covered her mouth with it, muffling any protests she had.

"Just walk, Lucy." He went on ahead, and she hastily followed after him, but not before touching the soft, warm cloth around her neck and inhaling the deep scent of his.

The blonde felt her heart flutter again and she resisted the urge to slap herself.

And for the rest of the journey, the word 'hormones' repeated itself over and over in her head like a new mantra.

* * *

><p>AN: Hmm… this chapter was slightly shorter than the previous ones but I didn't feel the need to add any more content so. (:

I've been reading the reviews and they really brought big smiles to my face hehe. Actually I wasn't really planning on writing about Lucy's first trip to Hugh's house, but since you guys were so excited and I didn't have much planned for this chapter, I decided to go ahead with it. Tell me what you thought about it? Hopefully it met your expectations… Hehe.

Anyways, thank you to **FDsecretart, Senbei x Cup Ramen, nico2883, PandaPiggy, DancesWithSeatbelts, Carebear90, MuddSkipping, TookACookie, TandK4ever, rebma726, LeeshyLoo, LightSpeed Athlete24 **and for the reviews! Really appreciate them haha!

Do leave a review to tell me what you thought about this chapter if you don't mind? :D They always make my day! (I have nothing to do in the hotel room so I've been re-reading reviews to pass the time lol. Save me. On a side note, I started watching Ao no Exorcist! It's fantastic! Rin is ultra-cute!)

((But Natsu is still the best.)) ;)


	8. Chapter 8

The Blind Date: Chapter 8

**Warning:** Minor cussing below. (:

* * *

><p>"That was a zebra."<p>

"Natsu, that was obviously a panda."

"Natsu, why did that zebra look so fat?"

"Beats me. Maybe it's a new species of zebra?"

"_Pandas_, guys, they're_ pandas_. Just because both of them are black and white doesn't make them the same thing."

"They look the same," the dragon slayer said dismissively, crossing his arms behind his head.

"Zebras look like horses, pandas don't!" Lucy argued.

"So zebras eat bamboos?" Happy asked.

"No, Happy. That's what pandas eat."

The three of them were currently on the way back to the guild after completing a job, and as usual, they were bickering amongst themselves.

When Natsu ran out of witty comebacks, he crossed his arms behind his head and smiled contentedly to himself. It was a good day. They'd gotten their reward, although they received slightly less than what had been stated because he _may _have accidentally destroyed the highest floor of the client's villa.

Oh well. Everything worked out in the end and Lucy hadn't been too angry with him for that. He just couldn't wait to get back to the guild for some food and a good rest. Maybe he would challenge Gray to another round of arm wrestling again, but this time with a penalty to it so it would be more exciting.

"—really should learn a thing or two from Hugh, then maybe you'd win Carla's heart," he heard Lucy chide Happy.

Natsu saw Happy brighten up and grin like a fool. The cat's ears perked up in interest as he listened intently to the blonde who was starting her usual ramble about her boyfriend. It was always about the same things: His "dreamy golden locks" that really looked like a bird's nest, his "crooked grin" that made Natsu wonder if his mouth would tear off his face someday, his "toned muscles" that honestly didn't look that impressive to him—even Gray did better than that—and his "kisses" that were-

_Wait, what? Kisses?_

"—amazing kisser, I swear I turn to goo when he does it…" There was stardust in her brown orbs.

"Wait, he's _kissed_ you?" Natsu gawked in disbelief.

There was an added bounce to Lucy's step as she giggled like a lovesick girl. "Is that so hard to believe? It's pretty normal between couples."

He frowned. "I didn't know you liked to take things that fast."

"Well… I was a little apprehensive at first, but Hugh made me feel safe."

"Safe?"

"You know, he gives me that sense of security, like nothing can ever hurt me as long as I'm with him."

"Ah…" Natsu felt his spirits dip slightly. From all the times Lucy had to scream for her life on their missions or worry whenever she was with him, he guessed she would never feel "safe" with him. Maybe that had to change.

"Oh Hugh, you're such a _tease…_"

"Only for you, babe."

Natsu jerked his head in the direction that sound was coming from. He could recognize that insanely fake voice anywhere; he'd even had a nightmare about it once. How Lucy could stand it all the time was beyond him. At a far corner just outside a bar, he found Hugh amorously hugging another skimpily dressed woman. Natsu's eyes widened at the weird sounds they were making, and took a while to register that they were actually making out.

"Natsu? What's wrong?"

"Huh?" He whipped his head back to find Lucy and Happy staring at him confusedly. "Oh, it's uh, nothing."

"What were you looking at?" Lucy began walking back towards him, but before she could even try shooting a glance at where he'd just been staring, he jumped forward, stopping her from moving closer. "It's nothing!"

"Doesn't look like 'nothing' to me," she frowned, trying to sidestep him, but he was not giving in an inch. "Natsu, I want to see too!" Happy grinned.

"No, Happy! Get back here!"

"Happy! Take me with you!" Lucy yelled after the flying cat that was busy trying to scan the area for whatever Natsu had just witnessed.

"I don't see anything, Natsu, where is-" The smile on Happy's face morphed into a grimace, but he made a commendable effort to hide it and forced a chuckle. "Eheh… Nothing to see here, Lucy!" He shot a glance at Natsu who quickly turned back to the blonde.

"You guys are no fun!" she complained. "I want to see it too!"

"No you don't," Natsu murmured at the same time that Happy said, "Gray was parading the streets naked!"

Immediately Lucy stopped wrestling with Natsu and took a few steps back. She made a face at the mere thought of the ice mage in his birthday suit and cringed. "You're right, I don't want to see that. Let's go, guys."

"Aye! Hey Natsu, how about playing a game?"

"Oh, I know! Last one back to the guild has to tell Gray he looks good naked!"

"Aye sir!"

"Natsu! That's cheating!"

He forced out some laughter as he dashed forward. As much as he hated that bastard, he didn't want to see Lucy cry. But that guy had another thing coming if he thought he was going to let him get away with this.

* * *

><p>Later that evening, Natsu and Happy marched up to the bar. If his nose wasn't wrong, this was where bird head was at the moment. He wrinkled his nose. Now it was filled with the disgusting smell of cologne. After this, he'd have to stuff his nose with Lucy's tampons or something to plug out everything else. "Natsu, can you see him?" Happy asked.<p>

"Not yet, but we're close."

Easily tracing Hugh's scent that was mixed with other perfumes as well, Natsu went in with a hard look on his face. Said man was currently lounging at a corner together with a couple of sleazy women draping their legs and arms around him. They were all smiling coquettishly and giggling in high-pitched voices. The dragon slayer tried his best to ignore the delighted expression on Hugh's face and the low, flirtatious tone he was using with them as his hands roamed intimately about their exposed skins.

"—and I said, 'Where the hell you think you're going?' and gave him a sick punch to the nose. Knocked him out in one blow."

"That's so cool!"

"Wow, Hugh. Next time bring me along on a job. I want to see you fight!"

"Me too!"

"Don't forget me, Hugh!"

"You _bastard_."

The giggling morphed into surprised gasps and Hugh paused in the middle of his valiant story and met Natsu's livid gaze. Immediately his smile dropped and he rolled his eyes. "Oh. It's you. And your pet."

"I'm not a pet! I'm Natsu's partner, I'm a Fairy Tail wizard too!" Happy exclaimed indignantly.

"What the hell do you think you're doing here? What about Lucy?"

"Lucy?" He shrugged. "She's my girlfriend. What about it?"

"What are you doing here with other women?"

"What are you, my mom? Move along, kid. I'm not going to waste time on you," he said, flicking his wrist dismissively.

Natsu's eye twitched and in a flash, he had the collar of Hugh's shirt in his fist. "I won't let you hurt Lucy!"

"Natsu…" Happy muttered, tugging on his scarf, but he wasn't listening. They were already attracting some attention, and Happy wasn't sure if they should attack Hugh in public. It could cause trouble for the guild and the Master.

"What are you doing to Hugh?!"

"Put him down, you hooligan!"

"Wait… Isn't that… Salamander..?"

"You mean, the fire dragon slayer from Fairy Tail?"

The women exchanged apprehensive looks and backed away slowly from the scene.

The blond clicked his tongue in annoyance. "Now look what you've done. We were having a great time too. Anyway, my patience is running out. Get lost if you know what's best for you, dragon kid."

Natsu was unfazed and only tightened his grip on his top. "If it's a fight you want, I'll gladly give it to you. But first, I want you to apologize for betraying Lucy."

He cocked an eyebrow and in a mocking tone, replied, "What for? She doesn't even know anything."

Natsu's lid blew. Drawing back his other arm, he brought it forward to punch him, but was caught by Hugh's hand. "Screw off, kid. This is a place for adults only." With that, he grabbed Natsu's scarf, catching the boy off guard and then he drew back his fist. It connected with Natsu right in the jaw, sending him flying backwards and crashing into another table. Screams sounded throughout the bar and people nearby timidly ran away to avoid getting caught up in the scuffle.

"You asshole…" Natsu groaned, getting up. "Natsu! Are you okay?" Happy flew over to his side worriedly.

"Yeah, I'm fine." He was about to counter-attack, but Hugh made no move to defend himself. "If you hurt me, you'll hurt your precious Lucy too. And you wouldn't want her to get angry with you for hurting me for no reason, right?"

"I've got plenty of reason to kill you right now!"

"Sure, but if you tell her, she's going to end up crying, and you don't want that, do you?"

Natsu stopped. "That…"

"Now be a good boy and run along, or you won't be leaving with just that punch." With that, the unashamed man sauntered away, back into the receiving arms of the group of women.

"Natsu, are you going to keep this a secret from Lucy?" Happy asked.

"…As much as I hate to let him continue betraying her, I don't want to see Lucy cry."

"I don't want to see Lucy cry either... So that means, we can't say anything to her."

"I don't like the idea of giving in to that bastard, but this is only for Lucy."

"Aye…"

* * *

><p>Happy was not very happy at the moment. Neither was Natsu. Rain was pouring down heavily on the streets of Magnolia. Everyone had umbrellas, except for the dragon slayer and the flying blue cat. The rain only seemed to dampen their moods further, and they trudged down the path back home, minds still clouded over what had happened earlier. They hadn't said a word to each other; there was no need to. Besides, there was nothing to say. They were stuck between a rock and a hard place, that was all there was to it.<p>

Natsu contemplated going to Erza or Mirajane about this, since they were more mature and would probably be able to think of something better, but knowing Mirajane, there was a high chance of her assuming that he was jealous and teasing him. Erza on the other hand, would likely choose to tell Lucy straight up, which Natsu and Happy were hesitant about doing.

"Hey Natsu, isn't that Grace?" Happy suddenly spoke up.

"Huh?" The pink-haired boy turned his head to the entrance of their house, and indeed, the silver-haired girl was out there waiting. She was soaked to the bone too, and she was shivering. "Oi, Grace!" he called out, his feet making loud splashes in the puddles on the ground as he ran over. Happy also followed suit, flying towards her.

Grace snapped her head up and gave them a warm smile. "Hello!"

"What are you doing here?" Natsu asked, while Happy greeted her.

"I made some apple pie," she replied, holding up a basket, "but I think it's cold now…"

He took the basket from her and grabbed her hand, rubbing it between his. "You're colder. We should go in."

"Y-Yeah…" Happy unlocked the door and he ushered the woman to a seat on the couch while Natsu went to the kitchen to set the basket down on the counter and grab a mug. After filling it with water, he quickly heated it up with a small flame in his palm and when it was warm enough, he returned to the main room and handed it to her. "Here, this should warm you up."

"Thank you, Natsu."

"Grace, you should get a change of clothes, you're wet," Happy pointed out.

"I think I may have some smaller-sized clothes, if you don't mind," Natsu offered.

A rosy color appeared on her cheeks and she stammered, "I-I don't want to trouble you-"

"But you'll catch a cold," he replied simply and went into his room. He came back with a rather oversized white shirt and a pair of pants. "Sorry, but this is the smallest I could find," he said sheepishly.

"It's fine, thank you, Natsu," she smiled. "Is it okay if I use your room to change?"

"Sure, go ahead. It's just messy," he warned. She only laughed, accepted the clothes from him and entered his room.

"Natsu, what do we do with the apple pie?" Happy asked from the kitchen. Natsu went in and looked into the open basket. It seemed a little wet. "I don't know… Maybe I'll heat it up and then we can all eat. Help me get a plate for Grace… and maybe two plates for us." It might be a little rude to eat her apple pie with their bare hands.

While Happy went to get the plate and cutlery, Natsu took out the apple pie that was wrapped in aluminum foil and created a small flame in his hands, careful not to burn the pie that Grace probably took a long time to make for them. As he heated it up, the heavenly smell of the apple pie filled the kitchen, making him drool. "Natsu, it smells good!" Happy exclaimed as he flew over to see.

"Right? I wanna eat it now!"

When it was warm enough, Natsu set the foil back on the basket and attempted to cut the pie neatly into three equal pieces. Needless to say, he failed badly.

"Do you need some help with that?" Grace chuckled from the kitchen entrance. The petite woman looked a little ridiculous in Natsu's clothes; his shirt fell all the way down to her upper thigh and she had to roll his pants up so the ends would not drag on the floor. But it generally looked comfortable enough.

"Uh… Sort of," he muttered, stepping aside and handing the knife to her.

She expertly trimmed off the sides of the parts that he'd messed up and placed three slightly smaller pieces of pie onto the plates Happy had placed on the counter. "There you go," she smiled.

"Wow, you're good," Natsu commented. "Hey, if you took up sword-fighting you might be even better than Erza."

"Aye! You handle knives better than Erza," Happy chuckled. "But don't tell her we said that."

"Erza, the strongest woman wizard in all of Fairy Tail? I really admire her! She's my third favorite wizard in Fairy Tail," Grace grinned, handing a plate to Happy and Natsu each.

"Who's your favorite?" Natsu asked.

"Um… Well, I couldn't choose between the two of you, so…" she blushed, resting her eyes on the floor as she took a bite of the pie.

"So we're your favorites?" Happy grinned. "Yay Natsu, Grace is our fan!"

"Friend, not fan," Natsu laughed. "Grace, this apple pie tastes great!

"I'm glad. I was afraid it wouldn't taste good because it got a little wet from the rain earlier," she said with a coy smile.

When they were done eating, they left the dishes in the kitchen and went out into the main room. "It's still raining," Natsu frowned. "Looks like you'll have to stay here till it stops."

"Yeah…"

"Hey Grace, how's your brother? We've never seen him before," Happy quipped.

A look they didn't recognize appeared on her face before it disappeared quickly. "He's been away on a job for a while… I miss him."

"How long has he been gone for?" Natsu asked.

"A week or so, I guess. It feels lonely at home without him."

"What about your parents?"

"…They passed away when I was ten. My brother was thirteen then, and that was around the time he became a wizard and joined a guild to earn money for our living expenses. He's always worked hard to protect me, so I wish I could do something for him in return…" she said sadly.

Natsu cocked his head to the side. "I don't think you need to do anything, actually. I mean, all he wants is for you to be happy and safe, right? That's what family is. Besides, he gets to eat all those meals you cook for him, so he's probably happy enough for that."

The corners of her lips turned up slightly. "You really think so?"

"Yeah."

"Aye, me too!" Happy agreed enthusiastically.

"Thanks guys," she said. Grace looked out the window and found that the rain had stopped. "Well then, I think I should go. I'll return your clothes to you another time, if that's alright."

"You can keep them or throw them away if you want. They're pretty old and I can't fit into them anymore."

"Oh, okay. Thanks, Natsu."

"Do you need me to walk you home?" Natsu asked as he opened the door for her. She stepped out with the basket and her wet clothes in hand.

"It's fine, but I appreciate the offer."

"Bye Grace! Say 'hi' to your brother for us!" Happy called.

"I will," she smiled.

Natsu did not return it as he wordlessly gave her a wave. He recognized that smile. He used to smile the same smile whenever someone brought Igneel up and tried to comfort him.

* * *

><p>"Natsu! Where'd you get that bruise? What happened?"<p>

Natsu plopped onto Lucy's bed and sighed, turning away in an effort to hide the purple mark on his jaw. "I just… ran into a pole."

"I'm not surprised," she grimaced. "Hang on, I'll get the ointment."

The blonde walked to the other end of the room and rummaged through her cabinets. She returned with a bottle of medicated oil in her hands. "Sit up," she instructed. The dragon slayer complied obediently. He tilted his head up to give her a better view, and then with two fingers she gently rubbed it on the bruise. He hissed in pain, but otherwise did his best to bear with it.

Through the corner of his eyes he could see her focused brown orbs and suddenly noticed that they were rather close to each other. He could smell the sweet lavender scent on her wet hair and it was almost… enticing.

Immediately he averted his gaze elsewhere, but his eyes were recalcitrant; stubbornly they shifted back to the golden mane before him. Hugh's hair was nothing compared to hers; _this_ was what "dreamy" looked like…

"It shouldn't take too long to recover," she said as she pulled away, snapping him out of his thoughts and as she made her way back to the cabinet to put the bottle back, the dragon slayer mentally slapped himself over and over again.

"Natsu, you look constipated. Is there something wrong?"

"N-Nothing's wrong!" he denied a little too quickly, which made her quirk an eyebrow in suspicion.

"Really?"

"Y-Yeah…"

With a small frown that he noticed, made the skin on her forehead crinkle and her lower lip protrude ever so slightly, she sat on the bed beside him and said, "You know, if you have anything on your mind you can just tell me. We're best partners, right?"

"Yeah, best partners… Of course. Yeah."

"You're acting really weird, Natsu. Not that you don't most of the time, but you get what I mean."

"Hey, I don't act weird!"

"Yes, you do. Don't make me recount all your weird moments or this conversation will go on for days."

He folded his arms and huffed. "Well… you were pretty awkward too when your sexual appeal strategies didn't work."

Her teasing smirk vanished and was replaced with a scowl. "Hey!"

"Need I remind you how many times that strategy failed?" he said with a smug grin.

"It worked once on Dan!"

"And failed on all the others."

He laughed when she ran out of comebacks completely. Huffing, she slapped him playfully on the arm. "Get out of my house."

"Aw come on, just because I teased you a little? Let me stay here a while more, please?"

"No, because I'm sleepy and I don't want another slumber party at my house! Speaking of which, where's Happy? Is he waiting for you at home?"

"Nah… I don't know, I think he's at the guild with Carla." That was a lie; the cat had been too guilty to face Lucy knowing that Hugh was a giant asshole and yet had to keep her in the dark about it. Knowing Happy, he was probably looking for Wendy and Carla for company or taking a fly.

"Oh. With Carla again?"

"I guess…"

Lucy sighed. "Well, I hope Happy succeeds someday. He really likes Carla."

"Yeah, he does. He doesn't shut up about her at home, and he's even dreamed of her instead of fish a couple of times before." Natsu rolled his eyes.

"He's got it bad for her."

"Yeah."

"What about you?"

He frowned. "Me?"

"Yes, you. Do you like Grace?"

"What? Grace?" He stared at her in puzzlement. "I like Grace, she's nice."

"I mean, do you like her in _that_ sort of way?"

"What sort of way?"

"You know… Like how Happy likes Carla."

"Oh. Nah, she's just a good friend."

"I see…" Lucy looked a little relieved. "Well anyway, I want to sleep early; I have a date tomorrow."

Natsu frowned. "With Hugh?"

"Yeah, Hugh. Who else?"

"Oh… Um… Lucy, I uh…" How should he put this? _Oh, by the way, Hugh is a big jerk and he's actually cheating on you so I think you should break up with him._

Yep, Lucy would definitely cry.

"Yes, Natsu?"

_Crap. _"Uh…"

"Is something wrong? You look troubled."

"No, nothing's wrong… That is…"

"If there's something on your mind, just say it. I won't get mad, promise." That look on her face meant she was already expecting terrible news, like he'd just destroyed a building and needed money for compensation or something along those lines.

_I'm not worried about you getting mad, Lucy… _"About Hugh…"

"Yes?"

Seeing that smile on her face that had already appeared unconsciously struck him with even more vexation. Of all people, why did she have to fall for that sort of guy? "Um…"

"Did something happen?" she asked worriedly.

"No! Nothing happened!"

"Then, what about him? You don't like it when I talk about him."

"You noticed?"

"Yeah… You always get that look in your eyes when someone brings him up."

"Like what?"

"Like you want to beat something up."

"Oh. Oops?"

"It's okay, I know you two got off to a bad start… So, what is it?"

"It's just that… Well… Lucy, do you like him a lot?"

Lucy seemed to be slightly taken aback by the question. "Yeah, I do… Why?"

Natsu suddenly felt an invisible weight on his chest. "Is he good to you?"

She smiled. "He's very caring."

"Are you happy with him?"

"Very." She would definitely cry if he told her. Suddenly he was aware of a strange, growing ache in his chest.

"That's… good then."

"Um, yeah, it's great."

"If he ever hurts you, tell me. I'll kill him for you, okay?"

She laughed, and nodded, throwing her arms around him. "Of course I will, Natsu. Thanks. I'm really lucky to have a friend like you."

"You mean partner," he corrected with a small flutter in his chest. He was starting to get used to the way his face would heat up whenever he hugged Lucy, and the way his heart would start running in circles in his chest when she smiled at him, and the way his belly would begin to warm up in a manner different from when he ate a mouthful of fire. He didn't know why this was happening to him, or why he only felt this way when he was near Lucy. If only Igneel was around…

"Best partner. We'll be best partners forever, right?" He felt her cheek move upwards in a grin.

"Yeah," he said, returning the hug and burying his face in her hair, "we will."

* * *

><p>AN: Wow I'm really not sure if this thing is going too fast… I really hope it's not! So, how do you feel knowing that Hugh is really a bad guy? Taken from my friend **LeeshyLoo,** his name shouldn't be Hugh Freeman; it really should be Hugh Jasshole. X'D And I really like Grace too, what about you? (:

I hope you enjoyed this chapter! And thank you to **Melody233, TheGoldenDragonofFiore, nico2883, Senbei x Cup Ramen, FDsecretart, CelestialWizard, DancesWithSeatbelts, TigerLily 409, LittlePrincessNana, PandaPiggy, MeGustaZeref, shiroitenshi, FairyTailMage77, DazzTugz, Haus of Lexy, LeeshyLoo, , TookACookie **and **rebma726** for the real sweet reviews hehe (: I had fun reading them and hehe I guess your suspicions about Hugh have been confirmed.

Okay so with regards to my next update, I will not have my laptop with me because in two days I'm going on a trip to Hangzhou and Hong Kong with the choir :D The choral festival is in Disneyland aahhh I can't wait hehe. ^^ I'll only be back home on 5 December so… unfortunately you'll have to wait a little longer for the next update. ): Sorry guys, but my parents won't allow me to bring my laptop overseas waaaahh.

So yeaps that's all from me and I hope you have a nice day! God bless you~ I'll miss you lovelies!


	9. Chapter 9

The Blind Date: Chapter 9

Lucy stood in front of her full-length mirror frowning at her reflection. In the background, mountainous piles of clothes were flung everywhere. They were strewn all over the floor, her bed and her study table. "This is no good either…" she sighed in annoyance, pulling off the over-the-shoulder sweater and tight leather jeans she had on.

The blonde scratched her head and turned around, ready to scream at the sight of her clothes everywhere—this was exactly how Natsu's room looked like; maybe his messiness was actually contagious. "What should I wear…" she muttered to herself in angst as she waded through the river of clothes to get to the other end of the room where her cupboard was. It was difficult to open, with so many things obstructing the doors. Lucy would call Taurus in for some help, but the perverted cow would probably be deaf to her instructions since she was only in her lacy underwear at the moment.

Eventually she managed to yank the doors open and was dismayed to see that there were so few articles of clothing left hanging sloppily on her hangers.

Turning to her bed, she eyed the clothes there. She had taken everything out of her wardrobe and flung the most sexy and revealing ones onto her bed for her selection later. But she just couldn't find something that would be pleasing to Hugh. At least, pleasing enough that he would stop eyeing other girls like that when she was walking next to him. Honestly, he and Taurus would be best friends.

Lucy had already noticed on a couple of occasions while on dates with Hugh that as they were talking, at some point he'd tune out of the conversation and only nod and hum every now and then to act as if he were listening to her. At first, Lucy thought it was only because she was being too long-winded in her conversations, and had already cut down on speaking, but still that habit of his remained. It was only on their previous date at a bar that Lucy realized it was something else altogether. They had been sitting near a group of scantily clad girls with voluptuous figures, and when Lucy followed the direction of his gaze, she realized he had been staring at them the whole time.

Needless to say, she had gotten rather upset. But not wanting to expose him in fear of getting him annoyed with her—his temper was starting to get slightly worse nowadays—she asked him what kind of girls he liked.

Without hesitation, he had answered, "Sexy girls." Then he had turned to her and eyed her outfit with a wry twist of his lips. "Hey, maybe you could try something new. I think you'd look hot in a sexier outfit."

Thus explains the wardrobe disaster in her room. Lucy was at a loss. She had even put on her sexy underwear in hopes that they would give her some inspiration, but apparently not. She couldn't find anything that would look nice enough on her. She looked at her bed to find some of her most embarrassing pieces of clothing that had been given to her as gifts from Levy, Erza and Cana.

Hesitantly, Lucy chose a more casual-looking one. The top was basically a rectangular piece of black, lacy fabric that covered her breasts and the shorts were basically as good as panties, except they were slightly longer, barely covering her butt. A translucent black veil was attached to the front of her shorts and there were two strings attached to the top of it, which she used to tie around her neck. Looking at herself in the mirror, Lucy felt her cheeks flame. Granted, she had confidence in her sex appeal and was not afraid to flaunt it, but this was just too much.

But bashfulness aside, the girl had to admit, she looked good, perhaps even better than those girls at the bar. As she thought back to the few incidents, Lucy felt her jealousy push aside all other thoughts of modesty. "Maybe I should ask for their opinion on this before I show Hugh…" she thought aloud. She tried stretching and was delighted to find that the material was convenient for her to go on jobs too. That being said, she was supposed to meet Natsu at three in the guild to look for a job.

"I wonder if Natsu will like this," she pondered absently as she put on her black knee high combat boots before heading out.

* * *

><p>"I'm not going to lose!" Natsu declared over the chorus of loud cheering by the other guild members.<p>

"That's what you always say before you lose," Gray snorted as he raised his right hand.

"You can do it, Natsu!" Happy cheered from the next table.

Natsu raised his right hand and squeezed the ice mage's other hand that he was holding. Gray returned it evenly.

"Rock, paper, scissors!"

Natsu held out paper and Gray held out rock.

The dragon slayer shot him a wicked grin before slapping the back of Gray's hand hard.

"Ow!" he cried. His hand was now an angry shade of red. Natsu cackled in response. "Ready to give up yet, loser?"

Gray was still groaning when he looked up, and then all of a sudden, his eyes stopped froze in place. Natsu assumed that he needed some time to get over the intense pain from that slap. Taking advantage of his dazedness, he inconspicuously shook his stinging right hand.

"What the- Is that really..?" he heard Droy mutter in disbelief and awe.

"I'm think I'm going to get a nosebleed," Wakaba murmured from behind in a strained voice. Natsu looked up in confusion, wondering what all the other men were doing. They all seemed to be captivated by something else and not focused on the match anymore. Then he noticed that Gray's eyes were still glued to something behind him. It was only when he heard chairs falling and other shrieks erupting around the guild that Natsu turned around to follow Gray's gaze.

And his heart stopped.

"Lucy!" Levy yelled, and promptly ran all the way up to Lucy to have a better look at her. The girls were beginning to form a crowd around Lucy, but all the other men in the guild were frozen in their seats, dumbstruck by the sight of Lucy dressed in such a… sexy outfit. Nearly the full length of her legs was showing, and only her breasts were covered, but a reasonable amount of her cleavage could be seen. Her outfit left little to the imagination, and the pink-haired boy found his thoughts drifting…

Natsu did not realize his mouth was hanging open until Gray reached over to push his jaw up, causing him to bite his tongue.

"Ow! What did you do that for?!"

"You're getting a nosebleed, idiot. Clean yourself up before she sees you."

With wide eyes, Natsu brought a finger up to his upper lip and found that there was indeed, scarlet liquid on it. Immediately, he clamped his hand over his mouth and ran off to the bar counter to find some napkins. He could hear Happy's chuckling trailing behind him and he cursed the blue cat in his head.

As he scrambled to find the cabinet where Mirajane always kept the napkins, Natsu tried to calm his frenzied heart. The image of Lucy dressed in that outfit was etched in his mind and he found himself somehow drawn to it, but at the same time, he was put off by the fact that she was showing this off to everyone else too. What if some perverted old geezer came along and decided to molest her or something?

At last, he found the napkin drawer and pulled a bunch out, sticking them up his nostril and wiping his hands. Just then, he heard Lucy call his name. "Natsu?"

Her voice was much closer than he expected. In surprise, he jumped and rammed his head into the closed drawers in the bar and groaned. "Natsu! Are you okay?" Suddenly he felt two hands caressing his cheek and when he opened his eyes, he found that Lucy's face was mere inches away from his and he yanked his head back, hitting the drawers yet again.

"Ow!"

"What are you doing?" she chided, frowning as she checked his head while kneeling on the floor. Natsu blushed and squeezed his eyes shut. Her chest was drawing nearer and nearer as she attempted to get a better look at his head.

"It's swelling," Lucy said before pulling away, much to Natsu's hormonal relief.

"My, I should get some ice for that," Mirajane said as she stepped in and walked to the fridge to get an ice pack for him.

After everyone calmed down from their initial shock and the girls were done fawning over Lucy's "makeover", she approached Natsu who was sitting alone at a corner. Thankfully for Natsu, the men had all been too distracted to bother pestering him about what he thought of Lucy's new look.

"Hey," she said.

"Hey," he returned without looking up.

"You've been pretty moody… Is everything alright?"

_Other than the way I'm losing my mind when I look at you dressed like that, sure, everything's fine. _"Great."

"Hey Natsu, look at me."

He did not budge.

"Natsu," she called again.

He refused to respond. With her standing so close to him and the smell of her intoxicating perfume tickling his nostrils, he had no idea if he'd be able to stop himself from having another nosebleed.

Suddenly her hands were on his cheeks and they forced him to turn around to look at her. "What do you think about my outfit today?"

"H-Huh? You got everyone's opinions already, why ask me?"

"Because, you haven't told me _your_ opinion," she replied. "So? What do you think?"

"I think…" he looked away. "You look better in your normal clothes."

Her hands let go of his face. "So… you don't think I look good in this?" He could hear disappointment in her voice.

"You look great, Lucy, it's just… Well, this isn't you. Why'd you change your clothes all of a sudden anyway?"

"Oh, um… I just want to try something new for Hugh. Do you think he'll like it?"

Natsu frowned. "Did he make you do this? What did he say to you?"

"Nothing, Natsu. What's gotten into you?" she frowned.

"Are you sure he didn't do anything?" he challenged as he rose from his seat so now he was taller than her. She took a tiny step back under his piercing gaze, but he didn't care. If Hugh had said something to hurt her in any way he was going to have his head.

"No, he really didn't!" Natsu noted that she was suddenly getting defensive. Hugh must have done something. Lucy never lied to him.

"I'm going to kill that bastard." Natsu was about to leave when Lucy grabbed his arm and stopped him. "Natsu, please don't, Hugh didn't do anything."

"You're lying," he said through gritted teeth.

"Why don't you trust me?" Lucy demanded in frustration.

"I don't trust _him,"_ he corrected.

"I'm telling you he didn't do anything! Why won't you believe me?"

"You're a bad liar, Lucy."

"I'm not… lying."

"I'm your partner. I can tell when you're lying."

"Well, I'm not!" she snapped. "If you don't like the way I'm dressed then you can just tell me in the face, you don't have to blame it on Hugh even if you don't like him!" With that, she huffed and stalked away. Natsu grimaced at the sight of her naked back aside from the modest piece of cloth wrapped around her chest.

"Natsu, we should quickly choose a job," Happy chirped as he flew up to his partner. But he was quick to notice Natsu's black face. He looked to Lucy who was heading out of the guild. "Did something happen?" Happy asked worriedly.

"We're going home, Happy."

"What about the job?"

Natsu did not respond. He then started for the exit and Happy could only silently follow behind.

* * *

><p>Natsu and Happy were sitting together at their usual fishing spot quietly. The dragon slayer was rather lost in his thoughts and Happy watched his partner worriedly. Ever since the previous day, Natsu had been so out of it. If it weren't for his foul mood, Happy would definitely have taken the opportunity to tease him about Lucy's new look.<p>

"Sorry to keep you guys waiting," Grace said apologetically as she jogged up to them.

"Hello Grace! We just came too, so it's fine," Happy greeted, relieved that finally he would have someone to talk to since Natsu did not seem like he was up to socializing at the moment. And perhaps Grace would be able to make him feel better.

"Hey Grace," Natsu said with a small smile.

"You brought your fishing rods this time, right?" she asked.

"We did," he replied with a real smile this time.

"Hurry Grace! I think I saw some big fish just now!" the cat exclaimed and readied his fishing rod.

"If we get enough in time, we could go to my house and I can cook up something for dinner," the woman suggested.

"Sounds great," Natsu said.

Later that night, the three of them enjoyed a hearty dinner and Happy promptly fell asleep at the dinner table after stuffing himself full of fish. Natsu patted his belly as he lounged on the couch in the living room and Grace walked over with a cup of tea for him. She placed it on the coffee table in front of him and sat next to him. "It'll help with your digestion," she said, before taking a sip from her own cup.

"Thanks," he said, before gulping the entire thing down.

"Do you feel better now?"

He raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

"You were quieter than usual earlier, until dinner."

"Ah…" he scratched the back of his head and winced when he accidentally applied too much pressure on his bruise.

"Do you want to talk about it?" she asked.

He thought about it for a moment. Grace could keep a secret, and she looked like she would know what to do, being a girl herself. "If it's you, then I guess it'll be fine…" Natsu sighed and began telling her everything about Hugh and the things that went down with Lucy the day before.

"I don't like that Hugh is making her do that. It's just not… her. And I don't like the looks that the other guys are giving her in the guild because of that. She doesn't even look very comfortable in those clothes," he huffed, folding his arms across his chest.

"I see…" Grace nodded. "Is Hugh her first boyfriend?"

"Yeah…"

"Well… I think it may just be because she's insecure about herself."

"What? Insecure? Why would she be? Lucy's always confident about her sex appeal."

"Let's just say it's a girl thing," Grace smiled, "I think she wanted to hear your opinion since you're her best friend, and if you gave her a positive response it would have been giving her your full support in her relationship."

"But I don't support it at all," he frowned.

"That may have been why she got so upset the moment you mentioned it being Hugh's fault. But I really do think you should tell her the truth about Hugh," Grace said seriously, "The longer you take to tell her, the more hurt she'll be when she finds out."

"I know… But I don't know how to bring it up to her. And she might not believe me anyway."

"Why wouldn't she? You're best partners, aren't you?"

"Yeah, but... but I don't know… I hate seeing her cry…"

"If she does, lend her your shoulder," the woman reassured as she patted Natsu's shoulder comfortingly. "I'm sure she'll be fine because she'll have you with her."

"You really think so?"

"I do," she grinned.

"…I'll think about it. Thanks, Grace."

"You're welcome."

"By the way," Natsu looked up at the clock, "where's your brother? It's late. I thought he'd be home by now."

He watched her shift uncomfortably in her seat and a forced smile appear on her face. "He's um… he's on a job now…"

"He sounds pretty busy to me. When's he coming back?"

She tucked a loose strand of silvery hair behind her ear. "He said he'd be back in a week."

"Is he an S-class mage?" Natsu asked.

"Yeah," she nodded with a twinkle in her eye. "He's the strongest wizard ever. Someday, I'm going to be like him."

"That's cool, I wanna try fighting him sometime too," Natsu grinned. "What kind of magic does he use?"

"He can control the motions of objects with his mind. I don't think I've ever seen anyone else with powers like his," she smiled to herself. Natsu couldn't help but notice that it was a sad one. "I think it's because he has very strong willpower; he always had it since we were young."

"Heh, he sounds like a real man."

"He is," Grace nodded. "One day, I'm going to be just like him."

"You're going to learn that magic too?"

"Yeah, I've been working on it for a while. He taught me the basics before he left, and I've been practicing. He promised to teach me more when he comes back."

"Show me?" Natsu suggested.

She smiled shyly. "But I'm not that good yet."

"It's fine, everyone starts somewhere."

"Okay." She pointed to his empty cup that was on the coffee table and she squeezed her eyes shut in concentration. Then when she opened them, her eyes were glowing with a soft green light and she raised her finger. The cup began to float in midair, and with the tiniest movement of her finger, she brought over to the counter in the kitchen, where she then lifted a jug and poured water into the cup. Then carefully, she set it back on the coffee table in front of them.

The glow in her eyes faded and then her lips stretched into a smile. "This is my first time doing that, I'm surprised I didn't make a mess."

"That was awesome!" Natsu exclaimed. "Hey, if you master this, I'm sure you'll become an amazing wizard!"

"You really think so?"

"Yeah, you're really cool, Grace."

"T-Thanks, Natsu." A soft pink settled over her cheekbones as she stared at him.

"Do I have something on my face?" he asked, as he began pawing it to see if he had some sauce left on his face.

"No, your face is alright, Natsu," she chuckled. "I was just thinking… you resemble him a little…"

"Resemble who?"

"Nothing. Anyway, I think I should go clear the dishes before they stink up the place."

"I'll help."

"But you're the guest."

"I'm a friend too," he argued, and then he grabbed a bunch of dirty plates from the table and went into the kitchen ahead of her.

* * *

><p>The next morning, Natsu headed over to Lucy's house together with Happy. He was itching to go on a job together with her, and he felt like he should apologize for their previous fallout. Just as he was about to knock though, the door swung open to reveal Lucy dressed in a low-cut crop top and a mini skirt. Much of her cleavage was showing, much to Natsu's distaste.<p>

"Oh, Natsu, Happy, what are you two doing here?" she asked in surprise.

Happy said nothing, only gazed expectantly at Natsu to do all the talking for them. "Yeah, it's me… Listen, do you have some time? I want to talk to you."

"Um, will it take long? I have a date now."

"Uh…" How was he supposed to go about it again? It seemed the previous night's practice in front of his mirror had gone down the drain, since now he was at a loss for words. His mind was drawing a blank, and now he'd forgotten how he had planned to go about telling her about Hugh's true colors.

"I want to say something too," she admitted. "I shouldn't have told you off like that at the guild… You didn't do anything wrong, you were just looking out for me and giving me your honest opinion. I'm really sorry, Natsu. About the job too, because I know you were looking forward to it for a while since it's your turn to choose."

"That… I shouldn't have assumed you were lying either. Sorry about that."

Lucy smiled and shook her head. "So, we're both forgiven?"

"Yeah," he grinned back.

"So this was what you wanted to talk about, right?"

"Actually-"

"Oh no! I'm going to be late!" she cried when she stole a glance at her watch. "I'll be off first! See you later, Natsu!"

"Um…" he could only watch dumbly as she ran off. Then he remembered something. "Hey Lucy!" he shouted.

She paused and turned around in puzzlement. "Yes?"

"You… You look good today," he said as he rubbed the back of his neck nervously.

Lucy's lips parted into a small 'o' and her cheeks turned pink as she smiled and waved at him. "Thanks, Natsu. You look great too." Then she was off.

"Natsu, how are we going to tell her?" Happy asked worriedly.

He buried his face in his hands and ran his fingers through his hair, messing it up. "I have no idea."

"Should we wait for her here?"

"Maybe… I don't feel up to anything if I don't tell her."

"Me too… I hope Hugh doesn't do anything bad to her."

That was when something clicked in Natsu's head. What if Hugh tried something on Lucy? Especially with the way she was dressed at the moment, he might try to pull something on her. The possibilities ran through his mind and immediately he was running off in the direction where Lucy had gone.

"Natsu! Where are you going?"

"Happy, we're going to be ninjas for today! We're going to protect Lucy from the shadows and make sure bird head doesn't do anything to her."

"Okay! I know! Let's name this Project Ninja-Happy-and-Natsu-Protects-Lucy-From-Bird-Head!"

"Sounds great!" Natsu wrapped his scarf around his face, so that only his eyes were uncovered. "Nin-nin!"

"Nin-nin! Project start!" Happy exclaimed gleefully.

* * *

><p>AN: Hi again guys! Sorry for the late update, I've been busy with my other story after coming back home and it's finally complete! So now I'll be focusing entirely on this story (: Hopefully it was decent hehe I'm really excited for this story—just need to sort out all the plans I have because it's kind of messy at the moment.

Thank you to **rebma726, PandaPiggy, TheGoldenDragonofFiore, b2utifulshawol, FDsecretart, Mhilano, DancesWithSeatbelts, DazzTugz, nico2883, Guest, Guest, thecelestialmaiden, MeGustaZeref, Myrolerian, JayandNya4evr, artistofthemind, CeeCeeTheAlaskanDragonSlayer, LeeshyLoo **and** karenDragneel18** for the entertaining reviews hahaha and also for your well wishes~ The trip went really smoothly and I had tons of fun with the choir (:

And speaking of reviews, you guys have hit 100! :D Round of applause to you amazing peeps hehe.

I know some of you have been requesting for more Natsu and Grace interaction, and I assure you, more will come in due time, but for now, just wait and be patient yeah. ;)


	10. Chapter 10

The Blind Date: Chapter 10

Natsu and Happy hid around a corner as they kept their eyes glued onto the blonde. She was walking briskly and clearly trying not to break a sweat while she was at it. As she passed, heads turned and swiveled in her direction, and the dragon slayer couldn't help but notice that she was attracting attention from other males—a little _too much_ attention. He frowned at the sight of several predatory eyes on her and with his enhanced hearing, he caught several inappropriate comments being whispered amongst themselves about Lucy.

_Why those assholes…_ Just then, he spotted two teenagers snickering to themselves as they trailed a small distance behind Lucy. Then for some strange reason, when Lucy stopped to dig into her purse for something, both of them squatted down at the same time, reaching for their shoelaces. While pretending to be busy tying their already-tied shoelaces, their heads perked up and to his outrage, Natsu found them craning their necks forward and trying to look up Lucy's skirt.

Just as Lucy finished whatever she was doing and quickly jogged straight ahead, without thinking, Natsu leaped out of the corner he had been hiding from and tackled the two teenagers to the ground. Before they could react in the slightest, he punched them hard on the jaws with two fists.

They yelped in pain and struggled to get away from him, but Natsu's grip on their arms was vice-like. "What the hell, man! Let go!"

"You're crazy!"

"What were you trying to do to Lucy, huh?!"

"Who the hell is Lucy?"

"I'm going to kill you both for perving on her!" They shrunk back as it dawned on them who Lucy really was, and soon they were reduced to a pleading and sobbing mess at the sight of the wild anger in Natsu's eyes. "Sorry! Please don't hurt us!"

"Natsu! Lucy's going to see us! Quick, hide- degozaru!" Happy hissed in his ear, just as he raised his arm in preparation for another punch. Natsu bit on his lip as his fists clenched even tighter. He fought the urge to give the two jerks another hit just for good measure, but Happy was tugging on his scarf and he knew he had to hurry and leave. After shooting them a final murderous glare, he begrudgingly dropped them to the floor and dove behind a tree together with Happy as fast as he could. The two boys promptly scampered away for their lives.

"Nin-nin, did she see us?" Natsu whispered.

"No, she didn't. Look, bird head has appeared- degozaru." Natsu snapped his head up and looked in the direction of Happy's paw to find Lucy running up to Hugh who was waiting outside a restaurant with a bouquet of roses in hand. With a wide smile, he scrutinized her outfit with an approving gaze as he handed her the flowers. Lucy accepted them with a radiant grin and she took his hand as they entered the restaurant together.

"Natsu, they've gone in, should we follow them?" Happy asked.

He hesitated before giving a response. He didn't exactly want to see Lucy acting all lovey-dovey around Hugh and watching him touch her in ways he couldn't, but at the same time there was a burning curiosity within him to know exactly how close they were.

"We're going in, Happy." With stealthy steps, they whizzed past the staff standing at the entrance and jumped into the nearest empty seat they could find, keeping their heads low and hiding their faces with the menus. The pair peeked over the top of their menus to scan the area for Lucy and Hugh. It wasn't too difficult to find them. The couple was sitting by the window in a small corner and chatting quite animatedly. Natsu and Happy were sitting a ways from the two, so it wouldn't be as easy to spot them.

"May I help you, sir?" The sudden appearance of a waiter made the two jump and they quickly shushed him, gesturing wildly for him to pipe it down, effectively confusing the bearded man.

"I suppose I'll uh, come back later when you have your orders…" Then he walked away with a baffled look on his face, much to their relief.

"Actually Natsu, I'm kind of hungry, are you?" Happy said in a hushed tone.

Natsu nodded. "Yeah, smelling all this food is making me hungry. Should we order some food?"

"But the waiter just left."

"Let's wait till he comes back then." Without another word, Natsu continued watching Lucy and Hugh over the top of his menu while Happy leaned back in his seat and covered his face with the menu while trying to look for some good roasted fish to eat.

His eye twitched when Hugh reached over to tuck a loose strand of Lucy's hair behind her ear and trailed his fingers lightly along her cheek as he did so. It elicited a giggle from the girl as well as a rosy blush on her cheeks.

He had never seen Lucy act this way before. At least, not when she was with them.

And what was this sour feeling that was rising up in his chest?

Suddenly Natsu did not feel up to eating anymore, even after watching Happy munch on a basket of fish. The smell of the food was tantalizing, yet he found himself already full from observing Lucy and Hugh on their date.

"Natsu, are you okay?" Happy asked.

"Yeah… I just don't like seeing the two of them together."

"I think it's just because bird head is there."

"Yeah, probably. I don't like that guy," he said with a frown that had seemingly been etched on his face since they stepped into the restaurant. He returned his gaze to that table and found that the two were standing up and getting ready to leave. "Menus up, Happy!"

"Aye sir!"

They sunk back against their cushioned seats and used their menus to hide their faces. Natsu caught a whiff of Lucy's sweet fruity perfume as she walked past and the disgusting smell of Hugh's cologne that was the equivalent to air pollution of the highest treason in the country. Once their footsteps were soft enough, Natsu quickly placed a bill on the counter that was enough for the fish and then the two Fairy Tail mages were hot on Lucy and Hugh's trail, following them around on their date.

The couple walked side by side, with Lucy sticking very close to Hugh and the man had an arm around her waist as they walked. Natsu shook his head at all the incoming hostile thoughts that were plaguing his mind, as well as other weird ones like how he wished he could be the one holding her like that.

Soon they arrived at Magnolia Park. Lucy and Hugh walked to an open field where children were playing soccer, and sat down at an empty spot on a patch of dry grass. Natsu and Happy watched them talk and relax on the grass from a tree. Soon, both of them got bored, seeing as they had nothing to do. Happy decided to check out the rest of the park to see if Carla might want to come together with Wendy sometime while waiting. Natsu continued watching them and sighed as he leaned back against the tree trunk on the branch he was lying on.

Why would they come here on a date?

His idea of an ideal date would be busting monsters together with Lucy or just hanging out at her house and having fun together. Basically anything would be a date to him, as long as they were spending time together. He wondered why people felt it was necessary to buy flowers or shower their partners with compliments on dates; weren't these all kind of superficial?

And wait, why was he even imagining going on dates with Lucy?

Natsu slapped himself and winced as his cheeks began to burn up with a painful sting. What was with him nowadays? Maybe Grace would know something...

Later that evening, Natsu and Happy heaved a sigh of relief when they found that they were heading in the direction of Lucy's house. At her doorstep, Lucy and Hugh lingered and talked a little more, but Natsu felt that they were standing a little too close to each other. Their noses were barely touching and Hugh was gradually leaning in. Soon, their lips met.

Within seconds their lip lock turned into a make out session. Lucy's back was pressed against the door as their kiss deepened and her arms were wrapped around his neck, pulling him closer. Happy and Natsu watched all of it with wide eyes and pink cheeks. As the make out session continued with seemingly no end to it, Natsu noticed Hugh's hand slowly making its way up from Lucy's waist to her breast.

"Natsu!" Happy hissed. His wings had already appeared.

"Yeah, we're going in." Natsu was angry, and he jumped out of the tree they were hiding behind towards them, but just as they took a step out, he saw Lucy stop Hugh's hand. She pulled away and put his hand down.

"Abort mission! Abort mission! Hide!" Happy said a little too loudly and then the two of them dove back behind the tree before Lucy could notice them.

After a while more, Lucy entered her home, except she appeared to be a little upset and as Hugh walked away, Happy and Natsu found him to look rather annoyed.

"Natsu, what do we do now?" Happy asked as he eyed Natsu's long face. "Do you want to hang around at Lucy's for a while since we're already here?"

"Nah, I'm tired. Let's just go home," Natsu replied.

That night, Natsu tossed and turned in his bed. The conflicting emotions in his heart were creating much turmoil and they were keeping him up. Natsu sighed. The scene of Lucy and Hugh's make out session earlier was replaying itself in his head and it was immensely troubling.

All Natsu knew was that he didn't want the two of them to be together, except that it wasn't just because of the fact that Hugh wasn't a good person any longer.

* * *

><p>"You're not getting away!" Lucy threw her arm out, sending her whip straight towards the Gila that was trying to crawl away. The whip curled around one of its legs and she pulled back sharply, flinging it up in the air and then it crashed to the ground with a loud thud, sending dirt flying in her face. Instinctively, she closed her eyes and shielded her face as she withdrew her whip.<p>

"Lucy, look out!" Natsu yelled.

Peeking her eyes open, Lucy found that the lizard monster was coming straight for her. There was no time for her to dodge its open jaws. Its razor-sharp fangs were dripping with fatal venom. One drop of that poison would corrode her skin and enter her bloodstream within seconds.

But before it could attack her, Natsu landed a kick on its body from the side, and the venom spurted out of its mouth onto a rock just next to Lucy's feet. Smoke emerged from the sizzling rock as the venom began to corrode it like acid.

"Lucy, you okay?" he asked, not taking his eyes off the Gila that was already back on its feet and roaring in anger. Its eyes were flashing dangerously at the two of them.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Thanks, Natsu."

"This thing is annoying," he grumbled, as the Gila kicked into action once more, charging straight towards them with another loud roar. "Happy!"

"Let's go, Natsu!" Happy grabbed the back of Natsu's shirt and hauled him up into the air, getting ready for another round of battle with the Gila.

While they did so, Lucy took hold of a golden key from her belt. "Gate of the Scorpion, I open thee! Scorpio!"

"We are!" the celestial spirit shouted with zest. "Hey there, Lucy. Nice outfit, by the way," he added, after looking her up and down.

"Thanks. Scorpio, could you do something to distract the Gila so Natsu and Happy can attack it directly?"

"No problem," he replied with a smirk. The celestial spirit got down on all four limbs and raised his scorpion-like stinger at the Gila that was preparing to go after Natsu. The fire dragon slayer was shooting fireballs from his mouth while Happy tried to avoid the poisonous venom that the Gila was spitting out at them.

"Sand buster!" A powerful vortex of sand and dirt sprung out of his stinger and directly hit the Gila in the eye, blinding it. The sheer force also knocked it over, causing it to fall on its side. While the monster was caught in a bind, Natsu and Happy swooped in, taking the opportunity to land the final blow.

"Wing Attack of the Fire Dragon!" With two flaming streaks from his arms, Natsu brought them down on the Gila. It let out a loud howl of pain and subsequently went out like a light.

"Now that I'm done, I've got a date with Aquarius. Seeya."

"Thanks a lot, Scorpio. Have fun on your date!" she waved with a smile. Scorpio waved briefly and then he vanished back into the Spirit World.

"Let's bring him back home now," Lucy said with a sympathetic gaze towards the poor Gila. It was actually just a child, but apparently he had gone on a rampage after straying from his mother's side. The citizens in Rosemary Ville had been terrorized by the frightened baby lizard for days and requested that the Fairy Tail mages bring him back home safely to his mother back in the jungle just five kilometers away.

With the help of Taurus and Natsu, they dragged the little Gila all the way to the jungle and helped to find his mother. It wasn't that difficult, since they could hear the mourning mother Gila all the way from the entrance to the jungle, and they had promptly brought the little one over and returned him to his mother's side.

"All's well that ends well," the celestial mage sighed happily as they made their way back to Rosemary Ville to get to the train station.

"Yeah. I'm glad he got back to his mother," Natsu agreed as he walked with his arms crossed behind his head.

"I'm beat though, carrying him over was tough," Happy chimed in.

"You didn't even do anything to help!" Natsu retorted.

The cat only shrugged. "I was there cheering you on, Natsu. If I weren't there, would you have managed to bring him back to his mother?"

Lucy raised an eyebrow. For once, she had to agree with the thick-skinned feline. "If it weren't for Happy shouting the names of your favorite food and promising you that we'll go and get them when we're done with the job, I think you'd have collapsed mid-way."

"As if! I could handle that thing even without Taurus!"

"And yet you were sweating like a pig and crying for Igneel," Happy giggled.

"S-Shut up, I was just trying to liven things up!"

"It was noisy enough with Taurus going on and on about Lucy's "nice body" though," the cat pointed out meaningfully.

"Speaking of which," Natsu said, jabbing a thumb in Lucy's direction, "why are you wearing _that_ for the job?"

"What's wrong with this outfit?" Lucy frowned. She looked down at her clothes she had worn for the day. She was clad in a sweetheart, bright red top and a pair of black leather shorts with stockings and her black combat boots. "I think this looks nice—without the dirt on them," she added with a small grimace. There went some of the reward money for laundry services.

"Isn't it a bit too… you know, too much?"

"Really? I thought this was casual enough."

"Lucy, your fashion sense is getting worse by the day," Happy shook his head, with disappointment laced in his tone.

"As if you know anything about fashion! You don't even wear clothes!"

"That's because I look good without clothes, but you don't."

"I think Lucy would look good without clothes, actually," Natsu blurted, before covering his mouth and looking away.

Lucy would have slapped him for the careless and perverted comment of his if she weren't blushing so hard. Her fingers were itching to hit him though. "This argument is so ridiculous I don't even know where to start…"

"Anyway, where are you two heading after this?" the blonde inquired. They hadn't come over to her place in a long time, and it was starting to feel a little too quiet all alone in her apartment.

"We're going fishing with Grace again. Her fish soup is so good, I can't wait for dinner already," Happy sighed dreamily. Lucy could tell he was already hopelessly lost in his fish-filled fantasy world.

"Since when did you guys get so close to her? Have you been going over all this time? I haven't seen you guys around at my apartment for a while…"

Natsu only shrugged casually. "I don't know. Grace is pretty fun to hang with, and you're always so busy with bir- _Hugh._ Besides, you always complain about us going over to your place."

"Well yeah, but that's only when you invade my privacy and my bed," she replied. "And I thought you said my place was our hangout…"

"You didn't want it to be your hangout," Natsu answered.

Lucy felt a wave of rejection wash over her. Why did it feel as if Natsu didn't want to hang out with her anymore? Since when did they become so distant? In the past, nearly every day, Natsu and Happy would be their goofy selves and go crazy in her apartment. Sure, it could be annoying when they just walked into the toilet while she was taking a bath, or when they rummaged her closet and starting trying on her clothes and even poking her underwear like they were dead carcasses in her room, but even though she acted angry and yelled at them for making a big mess in her house, the truth was, she really enjoyed those times with them. It was just a "Natsu, Happy and Lucy" thing.

As if he could sense her disappointment, which he probably could, since she wasn't making much effort to hide the hurt on her face, the fire mage added, "But when we're free we'll go over, just tell us when you're_ not_ going out with that guy."

"How about tomorrow afternoon?"

"Uh," he scratched the back of his head sheepishly. "We're going grocery shopping with Grace, because she needs to buy lots of stuff for baking and we have to help her carry some things back home."

"Oh…" Lucy thought long and hard. For the rest of the week, her schedule was filled with dates with Hugh... She sighed internally. Hugh was an amazing guy and all, but he kept trying to get physically intimate with her, which she wasn't comfortable with just yet. She wanted to wait till after marriage for that sort of thing, but Hugh seemed to hold a different opinion. He felt that they had been dating for so long already—although it had only been two months, which wasn't _that _long in her opinion—and she should be fine with it, unless it was because she didn't trust him. She really hoped this wouldn't cause a major rift in their relationship though. It was much too trivial.

Natsu and Happy were in the middle of a discussion about Grace's amazing cooking skills when Lucy tuned out of her thoughts and returned to reality, and she felt the familiar feeling of jealousy spring up in her chest. She felt constricted, and it was rather vexing. About a week ago, Lucy realized that she had been getting jealous over the littlest things when it came to Natsu, but the thing was, she couldn't like him, could she? She also got jealous when she saw other girls chatting up Hugh and attempting to seduce him and the like, so it obviously meant that she like him.

Unless… she actually liked Natsu too?

Was it even possible to like two people at the same time? She had read a few novels where protagonists thought they were in love with two different people when ultimately they had that one person in their hearts the whole time. It just took them some time to figure things out and for the emotions for the other person to fade away.

And on hindsight, maybe it was just a result of spending less time with Natsu and Happy. That was probably why she was feeling jealous for their company too.

Because, there would be no reason for her to actually like Natsu in _that_ sort of way, right? They were best partners, and would always be best partners.

_In other words, we'll always be in the friend-zone, _she thought to herself absently.

* * *

><p>AN: Shorter chapter this time, but I think this much will do for now. (: Hope you liked it! By the way, someone tell me how funny this story is because I am honestly not sure how humorous it is given that it's a humor fic lol. Thanks!

Anyways I'm really happy that you guys like this story so far! Here's a shout-out to **XxFairy-chan-xX, DancesWithSeatbelts, LeeshyLoo, SandraStar66, FDsecretart, me ga mawaru, MeGustaZeref, b2utifulshawol, , nico2883, ShadowKissedWitch, artistofthemind, SashaMonroe, TheGoldenDragonofFiore, CelestialWizard, me, rebma726, BlaccDragon25, Abigail Skywalker, JayandNya4evr, KiyomiDragneel754 **and** .epic.73** for the really sweet reviews!

Unfortunately, I have some bad news for you guys hehe. I'll be going overseas (again) to Hokkaido for an immersion program (yay!) and I won't be back till 23 December. I won't be bringing my laptop with me because I don't think there'll be space in the luggage since it's gonna be filled with my winter clothing lol. That's why I really wanted to update before I leave; I'm leaving tomorrow night! :D

Okay that's enough ranting I'm usually an early-sleeper and now it's nearly 2am I'm going to cry omg. Sooo sleepy…

I'll miss you guys! Xoxo~


	11. Chapter 11

The Blind Date: Chapter 11

"Natsu! Natsu!"

The dragon slayer whipped his head around at the sound of Lucy's voice, and quickly spotted the blonde rushing over to him in yet another of those "sexy" outfits of hers. He immediately felt the urge to grimace. Her outfits were getting more and more ridiculous as time went by. And by ridiculous, he meant ridiculously sexy. It wasn't that she didn't look good, but it was drawing _way_ too much attention from nearly every male in the human species.

When she came closer, he noted that her makeup for the day was also rather thick; recently she seemed to be caking her face with more makeup each day. First it had been the "cat eyeliner"—which Happy had teased her about for trying to copy his eyes—and then it had been the "smoky eyes", and then the bright red or hot pink lipstick, depending on her outfit for the day. Honestly, he thought only clowns did that sort of thing to their faces. Sure, she looked amazing, as the other guild members agreed so, but it just didn't suit her.

"Hey Lucy, you're late. Come on, we gotta quickly pick a job if we want to come back by morning." He cocked his head to the side. "Are you sure you can fight in those clothes? Doesn't look like it'll be comfortable sleeping on the train with those." He gestured to her very,_ very_ short, black leather skirt, fishnet stockings, six-inch heels and her top that had a gigantic hole in the middle, showing off her mid-riff. The translucent black blouse hardly covered her well enough, and Natsu could practically see her lacy bra through it.

He swallowed thickly and looked away hastily, aware of the heat gathering in his face and the slight tingly sensation in his nose.

"About that…" she said ruefully as she nervously twirled her hair around her index finger. She had been doing this sort of thing more often, like tucking her hair behind her ear, walking with an added sway to her hips, even biting her bright red lips when she was deep in thought. The other guys in the guild evidently thought she was a turn on when she did those things, but it was the complete opposite for Natsu—to a certain extent. "Hugh wanted to go on a date today, so…"

"Again?" Natsu sighed in exasperation. "Lucy, this is the third time you're standing us up."

"I know, and I'm really sorry, but—"

"Yeah, yeah. Hugh is your soul mate, you want to spend more time with him, he'd be disappointed if you turn him down, bla bla bla. But Lucy, we haven't gone on a job at all this week! Happy was looking forward to hanging out again like we used to._ I_ was looking forward to hanging out too…"

"Sorry Natsu, but I promise I'll make it up to you. How about tomorrow?"

"We're baking with Grace tomorrow," he replied.

"Oh…" A small frown appeared on her face. "Then how about the day after?"

"The day after is Sunday… I don't wanna work on our rest day. Let's just go on a job next week then."

"I'm sorry, Natsu. I'll make it up to you both, I promise." She checked her watch and she squeaked, startling the dragon slayer a little. "I'm going to be late! Talk to you later, Natsu! Bye!"

Natsu wordlessly waved back to the diminishing figure of the blonde. Then he slunk back in his seat and glared at the table.

"So she's not free again today, huh?" Happy said as he flew over to sit next to Natsu.

"Yeah."

"We need money to buy food though," Happy pointed out.

"I know… Never mind, we'll just eat a little less for a while."

"I miss Lucy," the cat muttered moodily. "I feel like someone else has taken over her and this isn't our real Lucy anymore."

"I know. This sucks, and I'm betting it's bird head's fault."

"When should we tell her?" Happy asked. "Grace said it's not good to let this go on for too long."

"Forget about telling her, it's hard to keep a conversation with Lucy for more than three minutes because she's always so busy," Natsu huffed.

"Are we going on another ninja mission today? It'll be easier to disguise ourselves because it's dark already," the cat said with a sly grin.

"Nah, let's just head home, partner. "

"Eh? You're not going to look at any jobs?"

"Too tired. Come on, let's go."

"Aye…"

* * *

><p>"Lucy, you made it!" Hugh shouted over the loud, booming music in the club. He was holding up a glass of wine and was trying to make his way past the crowd to Lucy who was standing awkwardly at the entrance. "It's a little wilder today, but it's cool," he grinned. "You look hot today, by the way."<p>

Lucy smiled coyly as his hand rested at her waist, pulling her to his side. "Thanks, Hugh. Um, how long do you intend to stay here for?" Clubs weren't really her thing. She'd come here on a few occasions with Hugh, but she could never really get used to the eardrum-killing music, or the very suggestive dancing, or the drunks puking everywhere, or the putrid smell of smoke in the entire place.

"Just for a short while. Come on!" He pulled her inside, and she gazed at him. His cheekbones were slightly pink. "You've been drinking a lot," she said worriedly.

"Just two bottles of beer, nothing serious," he said dismissively. "How about I introduce you to my friends?"

"It's not Matt or Andre, right?" The last time she met those two buddies of his, they'd practically undressed her with their wolfish eyes.

"They're here today, but you've met them already, right? Thought I'd introduce you to some female friends of mine so it'll be easier for you to make friends here."

He brought her to a table where there were a bunch of girls with heavily made up faces and dressed in body-hugging and revealing dresses. "Hey girls, what's up?"

"What took you so long, Honey?" One of them who was dressed in a neon pink dress whined as she stood up and leaned against him. He must have noticed Lucy's frown, because he gently pushed the woman away from him and sat her down politely. "This is my girlfriend, Lucy Heartfilia. Be good to her for me, won't you? I just need to talk about some things with my buddies over there."

Lucy tugged on the sleeve of his dress shirt. "You're not staying with me?" she asked with a pout. This was supposed to be a date, after all.

Hugh smiled reassuringly and cupped her face in his hands. "I'll be right back. In the meantime, you could do some socializing. Don't worry, they're nice." Lucy stole a glance at the table and found that the women at the table were arching their eyebrows and a few of them were even glaring at her.

Lucy gulped. "Yeah, they look… friendly."

"Have fun now," he winked as he pulled away and went off to look for his buddies, presumably Matt and Andre.

"Okay… What do I do now?" she muttered to herself as she warily eyed the table of hostile hyenas.

She tensed when a gorgeous brunette stood up and walked towards her, but then relaxed when she held out a hand warmly. "Lucy, right? I'm Rebecca. Have a seat." Then she took Lucy's wrist and sat her down next to her.

"Nice to meet you, Rebecca," she greeted, slightly relieved that there was one pleasant person in this pack of women.

"So, how long have you been with Hugh?" she asked.

Lucy opened her mouth to answer, but she heard some snickers erupt in the group, and a redhead said something like, "Dumb blonde" before she could even say anything. Lucy tried her best to ignore the temptation to stick Aquarius' key into a glass of iced water and douse that redhead from head to toe before that redhead knew what was coming.

Rebecca rolled her eyes and waved a hand at them to shush them. "Sorry," she said apologetically as she turned back to Lucy, "they can be bitches when it comes to Hugh. Don't mind them."

"I won't. But why Hugh?"

Rebecca stared at her like she'd grown two heads. "You can't possibly be _that _dense, can you? Hugh is one of the most popular guys in this city. Everywhere he goes, there're bound to be girls following behind him. Which is also why we're kind of curious how he managed to snag a girlfriend, and how long you've been together already." Rebecca leaned closer with amusement gleaming in her smoky eyes. "So?"

"Um, we've been together for almost two months, and I basically got to know him through a blind date."

"What?! Are you serious, girl?"

Lucy winced at the sheer volume of Rebecca's shrill cry of shock in her face. "Yes, I'm serious. Why?"

"Do you think Hugh is a good man?"

"I guess…"

The brunette cocked her head to the side with a tiny smirk curling up at the corners of her glossy pink lips. "You don't sound too convinced."

"Hugh is a nice person," Lucy said again in a more resolute tone.

With a raised brow, Rebecca asked, "Are you sure?"

Lucy furrowed her brows. "Where are you going with this?"

"Nothing, just curious to know what kind of girl Hugh actually decided to settle with… But you know, I'll just give you a piece of friendly advice: Don't give everything to him; he'll leave you after that. Not that he won't leave if you don't, but yeah, that's the drift." The women who were sitting close by smirked at that statement.

"W-What do you mean?" Lucy asked with wide eyes.

Rebecca took a big gulp from her cup of strong-smelling alcohol. "Figure it out. But if you want to know, I'm an ex. Ciao, Lucy." With that, she stood up and sauntered away.

Lucy stared after her dumbly. What did she mean by 'everything', exactly?

"Think about it," the redhead from before said with a wide smirk on her face, catching Lucy's attention. "Why would he need to go on a blind date with that many girls who want him?"

"That's…" Her mind drew a blank. That was very true. "Maybe… it's because he wants to settle down soon?"

That only earned her some mocking laughter. "Go on thinking that, blondie."

"The name's Lucy," she said indignantly, before stalking off in the direction that Hugh had gone.

It wasn't hard to find him, because he was also staggering through the crowd in search of her. "Lucy…. I was just looking for you," the man grinned as he reached an arm out on the wall for some support.

Immediately, she rushed over to his side and tried to hold some of his weight. "Are you okay? How much did you drink?"

"Only a few bottles…" he replied breathily. His breath reeked of alcohol.

"I'll take you home now," she said, hanging his free arm over her shoulder and walking towards the exit.

"But the party's just begun!" he yelled.

"You can't go on like this," she chided, dragging him with much effort towards the exit. At least he was holding some of his own weight, so it was easier to support him.

"Did you drink anything at all?"

"I don't like drinking," she said simply.

"Aw Lucy, don't be a spoilsport. Let's get a table and drink! We ain't going home till both of us are dead drunk!"

"No Hugh, if both of us get drunk we can't go home."

"It's okay, Matt and Andre will bring us home."

Lucy shuddered at the thought of having those two escort them home. "I'll pass."

Hugh groaned in supposed annoyance, but he seemed to relent. "So, we're going to my place?" he asked.

"Your place is too far, and I can't support you all the way there. We'll just go to my place for now," she answered, trying not to display the frustration she was feeling at the moment. If she knew the date would turn out to be this huge mess, she would have declined him and gone with Natsu and Happy on a job in the first place.

"Sounds good," he said before groaning and clutching his head.

Lucy sighed inwardly. This was going to be one long walk home.

* * *

><p>Natsu and Happy were making their way over to Lucy's house after getting bored of staying at home and failing to fall asleep. Maybe when she got back they'd have some time to hang out just like old times. They strolled down the usual path, feeling the cool night breeze on their skins. "Say Natsu, do you think Lucy will be back yet?" Happy asked.<p>

"Beats me," the dragon slayer replied. "But it's pretty late; it's not like her to stay out too late."

"Hey, then we could just hang around on her bed while waiting!" Happy cheered. "I miss her bed… I'm pretty sure I miss it more than Lucy."

"The way it bounces when you jump on it," Natsu mumbled dreamily.

"And the soft, fluffy pillow…" Happy continued. "Natsu, maybe we can convince Lucy to give us her bed?"

"Maybe we can ask her that when we see her later," he replied.

"Aye sir!"

They neared Lucy's house in high spirits, anticipating being able to sleep on Lucy's bed once more. It had been way too long since they last crashed at her place, just like old times.

They went up to the door and tried the knob, but it was locked. "Looks like we're going in the usual way," Natsu murmured.

"Aye sir!" Happy was already floating in mid-air with his white wings out, and Natsu flashed him a devilish grin as Happy caught the back of his shirt and hoisted him up into the air. They were about to fly upwards, but just then, they heard a shrill scream come from inside the house.

"That's Lucy's scream!" Happy shouted in alarm.

"Happy!"

"Got it!" Without a second's hesitation, Happy flew towards Lucy's bedroom window. Natsu clenched his fists and set his jaw. Lucy yelled a lot, like when she broke cups and plates, but when she screamed like this, it only meant one thing: She was in danger.

Without pausing to attempt opening the locked, glass window, they burst through it, sending glass fragments flying in all directions. Lucy's screaming rang painfully in their ears, and then a loud "Oof!" followed when Natsu rammed straight into some person who was being a nasty obstruction on the bed.

In the chaos, Happy let go of Natsu and he ended up rolling on the floor together with the other guy. While he was rolling on the floor, getting his limbs tangled up with the man who smelled suspiciously like Hugh, Natsu resisted the urge to gag at the strong smell of cologne and alcohol. He quickly untangled himself from him and pinched the bridge of his nose in disgust. "Man, you reek!" he complained, while shaking glass fragments that got caught in his clothes off.

"Lucy, are you okay?" Happy asked. Natsu turned his head towards the blonde who was currently backed up against the wall on her bed. Her jacket was half thrown over her shoulder, her hair was in a mess and her red lipstick was smeared all over her mouth.

The dragon had no need for questions. In a flash, he had the collar of the drunken man's shirt in his tightly balled fists. "What the hell did you do to her?!" Without waiting for an answer, he drew a fist back and punched him squarely in the face, hard.

Needless to say, Hugh went out like a light.

"Answer me, you giant jerk! Quit sleeping!" Natsu began to shake him wildly, but there was no reaction coming from Hugh whose nose was now bleeding.

Lucy promptly began screaming at him like a banshee.

"What did you do that for?!" she demanded, going over and pulling him away, causing him to drop the unconscious man onto the floor.

"I'm teaching this asshole a lesson for hurting you! We heard you screaming earlier!"

"So you decided the best thing to do was to break the window?"

"There wasn't any time to think! Your safety was our priority!" he argued hotly. Why was she acting like they were the bad guys here?

"Yeah, but you could have just opened the window like a normal person!"

"It's not usually closed! And like I said, we were worried and wanted to help you as soon as we could!"

"Guys… Maybe we should stop and cool down," Happy tried to cut in, but was blatantly ignored as his protest was drowned in the sound of their loud yelling.

"I can't believe you broke through the window like that! I'll have to pay for damages and report to the landlady! Do you have any idea how troublesome this is going to be? And I won't have enough money for that!"

"Well, if you didn't spend so much time going out with this jerk on days we're supposed to be going on jobs, you wouldn't have this problem!"

"He's my boyfriend, I want to spend more time with him! Is that so wrong?"

"We're your partners! And lately it feels like you don't want to spend time with us anymore," he countered sullenly.

Lucy stared at him with her lips slightly parted, clearly at a loss. "Natsu, I…"

"Don't apologize. Anyway, sorry for breaking the window. Happy and I will be leaving now."

"Natsu, wait." Lucy grabbed his arm before he could leave. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have shouted at you. My mind is just in a mess now… In any case, thanks for saving me earlier."

"What did he do to you?"

"Hugh… he was drunk, and then he tried to… um…"

"Don't let him ever take advantage of you again," Natsu said seriously, turning around to face her. "And quit wearing these outfits. It only makes you more prone to perverts like him, and besides, it's not you, Lucy."

"But Hugh said—"

"I don't care what he said. If he really likes you he won't tell you to change for him, and he'd know that this isn't really you," he replied. "I miss the old Lucy."

"Me too," Happy chimed in, walking up to Lucy. Wordlessly, she picked him up and held him close. "I miss you, Lucy. I wanna go back to hanging out with you and annoying you and breaking into your room and stealing your fish and sleeping on your bed and playing with your underwear and—"

"Don't test your limits, cat," Lucy said in a warning tone as she pinched his cheek brutally hard.

"Oww! Sorree Lushee!" the poor feline whimpered.

"I'm sorry too, Happy. I've missed you," she whispered, letting go of his face and pulling him for a hug.

"Lucy, you stink of bird head," he said before getting hurled to the other end of the room.

"Anyway, want me to kill him for you?" Natsu asked, cracking his knuckles as he gestured towards the unconscious man on the floor. "I'm getting fired up!"

"No! I'll have to let him sleep on the couch tonight, since he's so beaten up. Would you help me carry him to the other end of the room while I sweep up this mess?" she asked.

"But I really wanna beat him up—" He cut himself off abruptly at the threatening glare she sent him.

"You broke my window, Natsu… The least you could do is—"

"Yes ma'am!" he squeaked before swiftly pulling Hugh up by the legs and dragging him out of the way. He even made sure to "accidentally" knock his head against the table legs and chairs too. The drunk groaned and moaned, but showed no sign of waking up.

After Lucy was done sweeping up the glass fragments and disposing of them in the bin, she walked to her closet to pull out a futon, with the help of Natsu, while Happy watched them do all the work from her bed. Then, while Natsu supported Hugh's weight, Lucy spread out the futon on the floor and then she cued him to lay Hugh down.

The dragon slayer promptly dropped the man face first into the futon.

Lucy shot him a flat look and he scratched the back of his head sheepishly. "My bad, sorry 'bout that, Lucy."

"It's late, are you going to go home now?" she asked, looking at the clock on her desk. It was nearly one in the morning. It was only then that she realized how tired she was. The energy was sapped out of her body and all that was left was a zombie who desperately needed some rest.

"No way we're leaving. We're staying over, Lucy!" Happy announced cheerfully.

"What?" Her eyes widened. No no no, she was _not _going to deal with their pranks at one in the morning, no matter how much she missed their company.

"Why are you so surprised? You're the one who said you missed us," Natsu said with a casual shrug, before stalking over to her bed unashamedly together with Happy. "Besides, we can't leave knowing you're alone in the house together with the perv over there," he added, jabbing an accusing finger in the drunk's direction.

"We'll stay here to protect you all night long, and it'll be for free!" the cat grinned.

"I wouldn't pay you even if you asked!"

"Anyway, it's late. We should get some sleep." Before Lucy could protest, both of her partners were lying on one side of the bed, and one second later they were already snoring.

She contemplated getting Aquarius to wash them out of her room, but then the grumpy celestial spirit wouldn't leave without drenching her either, so that idea was out.

"What do I do with you two?" she sighed and shook her head. But without further complaint, she made a quick job of changing into her pajamas and washing her face before taking the empty side of the bed next to Natsu and pulling the covers over her.

'_Just like old times, huh?_' she mused to herself before falling into a peaceful sleep next to her two favorite partners.

* * *

><p>AN: I'm so, so, so sorry for the late update! I wanted to update on Christmas as a Christmas present, but I kind of got a writer's block haha. The words just wouldn't come, and even if I forced something out it just didn't sound right. I think it was mainly because I didn't like writing the Lucy-Hugh bit HAHA. So once again, I really apologize for the late update! But I do hope this chapter was decent enough heh.

Early Happy New Year guys! (: Best wishes to everyone as a new year begins!

But also, let's keep the passengers on board the currently missing AirAsia flight QZ8501 as well as their families in our prayers...

(Update) OMG AAAAHHH I FORGOT TO THANK YOU REVIEWEES HAHAHA I'M SO SORRY! I really wanna thank **nico2883, artistofthemind, SandraStar66, FDsecretart, AnimeOnCookie, BlaccDragon25, CelestialWizard, TookACookie, Panhead4Life, me, JayandNya4evr, Guest, LeeshyLoo, me ga mawaru, SashaMonroe, Whitebunny789, Inu Demoness of Darkness, b2utifulshawol, DancesWithSeatbelts, FrozenFireLight **and** DemigodOnFire **for all the really heartwarming and funny reviews! (((: Thank you for the well wishes too! Hahaha kk that's all from me byeee~


	12. Chapter 12

The Blind Date: Chapter 12

**Warning: Minor cussing below.**

* * *

><p>Sunlight streamed in through the window and fell directly on the sleeping woman's eyes. She stirred uncomfortably and then her eyes cracked open one at a time. "Ugh…" she groaned, pulling the covers off of her. Her bangs were matted to her forehead and she felt gross and sticky. It was unbelievably hot, despite it getting colder nowadays. "What gives…" she muttered when she noticed Natsu and Happy sleeping next to her.<p>

She let out a shrill scream before accidentally tripping and falling on her butt on the floor.

"Lucy's in trouble!" she heard Natsu yell as he sprung up in a split second. "Quick! To your position, Happy!"

"Aye sir!"

In a flash, the two of them were on either side of the bed, making guns with their fingers and checking their surroundings.

"Left side, clear," Happy reported.

"Right side, clear," Natsu replied. "But wait, where's target Lucy?"

"What are both of you doing?" she asked incredulously.

They turned their gazes down and their eyes widened like saucers. Then the next thing she knew, both of them were pressing their faces close to hers. "Are you hurt?" Natsu asked.

"Looks like it's just her butt," Happy said. "Natsu, did you grope her in your sleep?"

"No I didn't!"

"I just fell off the bed, it's nothing much. But first," she placed her palms over their faces, "get out of my face!" Then she shoved the two of them away from her till they were at arm's length.

"Natsu, Lucy's fine, which means our mission is complete!"

"Good job, Happy!"

And the next second they were back in the bed snoring.

Lucy stared at them in disbelief and sighed. But it'd been a while since she put up with their nonsense, so she decided to let them get away with it just once.

Then she turned to Hugh who was sleeping in the futon. He still looked so dreamy in his sleep, she noted amusedly to herself. With his hair all ruffed up like that, he actually looked harmless and adorable like a lost puppy, unlike when he was drunk and…

Lucy shook last night's memory away. Hugh had been drunk, so he didn't know what he was doing. Thank goodness Natsu and Happy had been there.

She walked up to the mirror in her room and looked at her reflection. Turning around, she scrutinized the simple set of pajamas on her and couldn't help but smile. Natsu was right; this was definitely more like her. Just a simple light blue shirt with a pair of pink yoga pants. But in lieu of it being so warm in her room—no thanks to the fire-breathing dragon slayer sleeping in her bed—she quickly replaced her yoga pants with a pair of cotton shorts.

"My head…" she heard Hugh groan out of the blue. Lucy turned around to find the man sitting up and clutching his head. "You're awake. Hang on, let me get you a glass of water." The woman then promptly headed into the kitchen to pour some water into a glass and then she handed it to him. "You drank a lot yesterday," she commented as he accepted the glass and gulped the contents greedily.

"I kind of guessed from this shitty hangover I'm having…" he muttered. "I'm in your house?" he asked.

"Yeah. Your house was too far away for me to carry you to so I just brought you here."

"Ah. Sorry about that."

"It's alright. You just rest up now. I'll be getting breakfast for you guys."

"You guys?" he echoed.

As if on cue, Natsu and Happy both let out an incredibly loud snore at the same time.

"You have guests in your room?" Hugh asked in disbelief.

"Oh yeah, Natsu and Happy spent the night here to help keep watch in case anything happened…"

"Are you kidding me? So you spent the night with that dragon kid? You _slept_ with him?"

She frowned. "Was I supposed to let them sleep on the floor? Anyway, we only shared the bed, nothing happened."

He snorted. "Yeah right, nothing happened. To think I stayed with you for so long just to end up with nothing."

Lucy folded her arms across her chest. "What do you mean by that? Don't you trust me enough to know that I wouldn't cheat on you?"

"Please, Lucy. Don't act so innocent. This relationship was just a game from the start. But I can't believe I let a woman humiliate me like that."

"Game? What are you talking about? Was this relationship just a game to you?"

He rolled his eyes. "Did you think I was serious about you? That I would want to marry you?"

She took a step back as he got to his feet and dusted himself off. "But… I thought that…"

"You thought wrong, Lucy. The only reason I showed you that much interest was because I thought we'd be able to have a good night together, but it seemed I thought wrong. I just wasted two months on you like that, tch. This really doesn't make me feel good—"

The sound of Lucy's palm making painful contact with his right cheek ricocheted off the walls of the house.

"I can't believe you're such a… a jerk! I hate you! Get out of my house! I don't want to see you again!"

The man rubbed his cheek in annoyance. "This is going to leave a mark, you bitch." Suddenly, he grabbed on to her wrist and squeezed it tightly, making her wince.

"What are you doing? Let go of me!"

"I don't take too well with girls hitting me," he replied, before raising his hand up in the air.

Lucy squeezed her moist eyes shut, waiting for the impact to come, but none came. "Hitting a woman? I never thought you'd stoop this low, asshole."

The blonde peeked her eyes open to see a furious Natsu grabbing on to Hugh's hand. In a swift motion, he brought his fist up and gave him a solid punch to the left cheek, causing the man to fall and roll towards the wall quite roughly.

"Lucy, are you okay?" Happy asked anxiously. She looked away, biting hard on her lip. If she said anything she'd probably burst into tears, which was the last thing she wanted that jerk to see.

Natsu took one look at her and then he was going after Hugh. "Natsu… please, not in the house," was all she said before she ran outside.

"Lucy!" Happy called.

"Happy, you go after Lucy. I'll take care of this guy… outside," Natsu added as he cracked his fists. The cat nodded and his wings appeared before he opened the door and flew out after her.

Before Hugh could react, Natsu grabbed him by the collar and flung him out the door.

"I've been holding back all this time since I couldn't do anything to Lucy's boyfriend. But now," the dragon slayer said darkly, "I'm going to kill you for making her cry."

Hugh got up to his feet with an equally livid expression on his face. "No one makes a fool out of me and gets away with it." He bent his knees and leaned forward, bringing his fists up into battle stance. Then they lit up with light blue flames.

Natsu clenched his fists and immediately they lit up in his orange flames. "Bring it on, bird head."

Hugh grunted as he charged forward at lightning speed, bringing a hard, fiery fist down onto Natsu's chest before he could even react. The next thing the dragon slayer knew, he was being crushed down into a crater in the concrete floor. Hugh flashed him a satisfied smirk, but this did little to Natsu, other than make him wince from the sudden impact.

"Roar of the fire dragon!" His cheeks inflated and Hugh quickly shielded his face before he let out a powerful vortex of fire through his mouth. The blond jumped back while Natsu dusted himself of rubble and stood up again.

"You ain't half bad, bird head. But was that you being serious?"

"I'll show you what serious means, kiddo." Hugh began chanting some words under his breath, and then fire from his hands began to float into the air. The flames accumulated until they became one giant ball. "Take this!" Then he shot the ball towards Natsu.

The ball went straight towards the dragon slayer, who stood in his place, stoic-faced with no intention to duck from the attack. However, instead of hearing sounds of his agonized screaming, all Hugh heard was a strange sucking sound. "What in the..?"

"These are the worst flames I've tasted; they're worse than Romeo's stinky flames," Natsu commented as he sucked the flames into his mouth.

Shocked, the blond took several steps back. "What the hell are you doing? Are you- _eating_ my flames?! Th-That's impossible! What are you, a monster?!"

"That's mean, calling me a monster when you betrayed Lucy and made her cry," Natsu shot back with an evil grin. "Now that I've eaten, I'm all revved up!" He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.

"Now, it's my turn to be serious. Try not to die, or it'll be real troublesome."

* * *

><p>Lucy had no idea where she was running. All she knew was that she wanted to go somewhere quiet where she could think and just be alone for a while. But she had a feeling Happy was following her, even though he had stopped screaming her name and begging her to slow down for a while already.<p>

Eventually her lack of stamina got the best of her and she leaned against a tree for support, trying to catch her breath. Her face was dripping with so much perspiration she had no idea if she was crying or just perspiring like a pig after that crazy morning run.

"Lucy…"

"Go away Happy… I want… some time alone…"

"But I can't leave you here when you're crying," he replied, landing and walking up to her and she sat down on the prickly grass, curling up into a ball. "It's okay Lucy, you can cry here. There's no one so you won't scare them away with your ugly crying face."

"Cat… if you're trying to make me angry with you you're succeeding."

"Actually, you know, if it makes you feel better I can give you my fish. Eating fish always makes me feel better you know? But then… I only have one left in my bag and if I give it to you then I won't have any left to eat," he continued, clearly not paying her any heed.

Lucy huffed in annoyance, but somehow she couldn't find it in her to be really angry with him. This was just like how they used to interact, and on any other day she'd be pissed off and trying to strangle him for his rude remarks but right then, she couldn't help but feel so nostalgic. And it was helping her take her mind off the morning's drama episode.

"Thanks Happy," she said after a while, nuzzling the top of his head. "You're good at comforting me."

"That's because I know you well, partner," he grinned, and leaned back against her before retracting immediately. "Hey Lucy, I know this isn't a good time, but maybe you should get a towel and wipe yourself off and get a bath. You stink."

"How about you stand five kilometers away from me? Because I have a strong temptation to hurl you into outer space right now."

He only chuckled cheekily before sitting next to her and leaning against the tree trunk. "Hey Lucy, are you very sad about bird head?"

She sighed lengthily. "At the moment, I would say I'm upset. But I'll get over it soon."

"Sorry…"

"Why are you apologizing? It's not like you knew about it or anything and kept it from me, right?"

He froze. "H-How did you know?"

She frowned and stared back at him. "I was just kidding… Wait. You knew? You knew about this whole "game" of his?"

"U-Um… Actually, Natsu and I found out two weeks ago that Hugh was cheating on you…" the cat said truthfully. He kept his eyes averted from the piercing stare of the woman's.

"And you didn't think it'd be significant enough to tell me?" she demanded hotly.

"We didn't know how to tell you, and if we told you, you'd cry and we didn't want to see you cry, so—"

"So you kept it a secret and let Hugh play with me for so long, and then waited for him to dump me before telling me?" Lucy huffed and stood up, stalking away.

"Lucy, where are you going?" Happy called, already preparing to go after her again.

"Don't follow me! Leave me alone!"

"But—"

"I thought we were best friends. I trusted you and Natsu… I guess I was wrong," she muttered before breaking off into a sprint again, leaving the cat behind.

* * *

><p>Natsu sighed for the umpteenth time while stirring the batter with little enthusiasm. "Grace, is this done yet?" he asked monotonously, tilting the mixing bowl towards the silver-haired woman who was currently weighing flour. She peered over to look at the mixing bowl, and then she sighed.<p>

"Natsu, you've been at this for almost fifteen minutes and the batter is hardly mixed. Come on, I'll show you how to do it." She put down the packet of flour and dusted her hands off before heading over to where the dragon slayer was. Then, placing her hand over his, she showed him the right way to use a whisk. "See? Do it quickly, but gently so you don't get batter all over the place," she said with a smile. "Now you try."

"Okay." He mimicked her movements, and though all he wanted was just to hurry up and get the thing finished so he could put it in the oven and give it to Lucy as a peace offering, he didn't want to mess things up and go to Lucy's house with nothing. At the thought, he sighed again.

Grace placed a hand on his shoulder, and he looked up at her questioningly. "What?"

"I'm sure Lucy will like it, since both of you are doing it for her."

"She's really angry with us… We haven't talked in a week."

"It's understandable, but Lucy doesn't sound like the type to stay angry for long, especially since it's you two," she reassured. "Things will get better soon, I'm sure of it."

Natsu hummed dismissively in response and turned back to the mixing bowl in disgust. "This is annoying. Why does baking take so long? Looking at all this food makes me hungry," he frowned.

"Natsu, you gotta learn to be patient," Happy said from the other end of the table.

"Tell that to yourself, you've already eaten one whole fish without Grace noticing," he snorted.

"Happy!" The woman placed her hands on her hips and stared crossly at the cat.

"Sorry Grace!" He sounded anything but apologetic.

"Both of you need to learn some patience, or the brownies won't come out well," she chided.

"Got it," they answered in unison before getting back to work.

"Anyway Natsu, I think you can stop mixing them now. I'll add the flour in a bit and then we can put this to bake," she said.

Soon, the batter was all done and put into the baking pan. Then, they inserted it carefully into the oven. "Now all we have to do is wait for twenty-five minutes and you'll have some nice brownies to give to Lucy," Grace announced.

"Aye! I hope she likes it," Happy remarked.

"Yeah… me too," Natsu sighed.

It'd been a week since he beat Hugh till he was half-dead and Lucy had refused to talk to either of them. She had even been going on jobs by herself, which had raised the concerns of the other guild members. In the end, Natsu and Happy told their usual teammates about everything that had happened.

Needless to say, they had been scolded harshly by nearly everyone, especially by Erza.

"Natsu, you have some batter on your face," Grace said, snapping him out of his thoughts.

"Huh? Where?" He began pawing his entire face, wondering where the stain was.

"Here, I'll just help you remove it." With a swift swipe of a napkin she took from the kitchen counter, the stain on his cheekbone was gone. "There you go, all clean."

"You sound his mom," Happy commented amusedly.

She blushed slightly. "I do? Well, people do say I'm the motherly sort."

"That kind of reminded me of Igneel…" he muttered.

"Igneel? Who's that?"

"He's Natsu's dad," the cat answered.

"Igneel… He doesn't live with you, Natsu? I don't think I've seen him around in your place."

The dragon slayer smiled grimly and looked away with a solemn gaze in his eyes. "No. He went missing when I was a kid. But I'm not going to give up looking for him. I know he's out there somewhere. It's just a matter of time before I meet him again."

Natsu turned back to Grace, but noticed that she now reflected the same expression he wore just moments ago. "Grace?" He poked her when she failed to respond.

"Huh?" She seemed to snap back to reality as she met his gaze and looked away again. "Oh, um, it's nothing."

"Doesn't look like it's nothing to me," he frowned.

"Grace, if there's something on your mind feel free to talk to us," Happy offered kindly.

"Yeah, we're friends, so you can tell us anything."

Noting the look of hesitation on her face, Natsu took her by the shoulders, catching her by surprise and forcing her to stare back in his eyes. "You don't have to keep it in, you know."

"I'm not… keeping anything in," she whispered weakly.

"You can't lie to me you know. I used to make this sort of face when I first joined the guild." He smiled. "You can tell me. It feels better after you talk to someone."

"It's okay," she insisted. "I'm fine. Really." She gently plucked Natsu's hands off of her shoulders.

"You sure?" he asked, unconvinced.

"Yeah," she smiled, "I'm really alright. We should um, check on those brownies. Why don't you two go to the living room and have a seat while I get drinks for you? And I'll make some tuna sandwiches for you too, Happy."

"Okay, thanks Grace," the cat said. He walked over to Natsu and they exchanged glances before heading to the couch in the living room.

"Something's up with her, Natsu, I can feel it," the cat said in a soft voice.

"Me too. Something smells fishy here."

"That's probably the tuna."

"I don't like how she's keeping things to herself. It can't be good for her."

"Do you think it could be something to do with her brother? We've never seen him around before. Every time we come over he's on a job."

"Maybe… Or he could be like Gildarts. Gildarts hardly spends any time back here when he finishes a job."

"That's true. Then what could it be?"

"Your tuna sandwich is ready, Happy," Grace said as she entered the living room with a small tray. She set it on the coffee table and Happy promptly dug in to the food, putting an end to their conversation. Grace chuckled at the sight, but then she noticed Natsu staring at her, and confusion made its way onto her features. "Do you need something, Natsu?" she asked.

"Nothing, just that—" The doorbell cut him off.

"…I'll be right back." Grace stood and hastily made her way to the door. She opened it to reveal a tall, dark-haired man. He was dressed in a white shirt and black trousers, but there was dirt on it and he was drenched from the pouring rain outside. The man was panting hard and bent over his knees. "M-Michael?" Natsu heard her gasp.

"Grace… Nice to see you again… You've grown up."

A stunned silence hung in the air as the woman remained standing there, unmoving, aside from her trembling fingers. "You… You can't be here," she whispered.

The Fairy Tail mages exchanged unsure glances, but after a while they decided to stand a small distance behind them to give them some privacy. Grace was unusually tense, which worried them.

"Where's… he?" she asked in a tiny voice after a long while.

Michael raked his fingers through his wet hair and emitted a very long sigh. Natsu felt his energy being sucked out just by hearing that lengthy breath. "I'm sorry, I wish I could bring you good news, but… he's gone, Grace. He's gone."

Her fists clenched. "Y-You're lying," she bit out in a shaky voice. "He wouldn't leave like that."

"I'm telling you the truth, Grace. I know this is hard to accept, but we couldn't find him. He just disappeared without a trace—"

"No! You're lying! I don't believe you!" she shouted. "Argus would never…"

"I'm sorry, Grace. I wish I could do something—"

"Sorry, I think I need some time alone. Would you mind?"

His lips parted, an unspoken argument on the tip of his tongue, but then he closed his mouth and relented. "…Alright. But know that I'll be around if you need anything."

"Thank you."

She quickly closed the door, not waiting for him to leave. The woman was now left alone, leaning against the door.

"Grace?" Happy began.

"I'm sorry, I didn't want you to hear all of that. Is it okay if you come over another time? I want to be alone for a while."

Natsu said nothing. He only walked up to the door, and she opened the door for them but instead of stepping outside, Natsu pushed it close. The fairly loud slam of the door startled the woman and he took the opportunity to grab her by the arm and then he pulled her towards him. She struggled a little, but he held on tightly, caging her in his arms. "Natsu, let go of me!"

"No," he retorted. "We're not leaving you alone when you clearly need us now."

"Please, just go!"

"Grace, you can tell us anything. We're your friends," Happy added, but the woman wasn't listening.

"I don't want you to see me like this!" Suddenly there was the sound of shattering glass. Natsu and Happy snapped their heads over to the living room and found the tray on the coffee table overturned. The plate and cups were broken on the floor, and there was spilled tea and sandwiches lying next to them in a messy pile. Even more alarming was that the lamps were levitating in mid-air and the couch, coffee table, and practically every other piece of furniture were trembling in their spots. The door also began to open and slam close repeatedly.

"Oi, Grace! Hold yourself together!" Natsu yelled over the sound of more shattering glass.

"I-I can't! I can't stop this!"

"Natsu, duck!" Happy yelled, and the dragon slayer looked up to see a vase heading for them. He ducked, pulling the woman down together with him before the vase could make a hit on their heads. It landed at the entrance of the door with a loud crash.

Hastily, Natsu pulled Grace away from him and held her by the shoulders. She was panting and tears were streaming down her face. "Grace, I need you to breathe in to my counting, okay? Breathe in… One, two, three, four, five… Now breathe out. One, two, three, four, five…"

For a moment, she seemed to calm down a little and the furniture in the house stopped shaking in their places, but when her eyes darted to the rest of the house, her breathing escalated again and then things reverted back to their earlier state.

"Look at me, Grace," the man instructed, putting his two palms on her cheeks and forcing her to maintain eye contact with him. "Now, continue breathing. One, two, three…"

A minute or two later, the woman finally composed herself and the green glow in her eyes vanished. Then there was peace in the house again, aside from the mess and the door that was left wide open. Exhausted, she slumped against Natsu.

"Grace, are you okay?" Happy asked, placing a paw on her shoulder. "You should have left… Both of you could have gotten hurt because of me," she whispered in a raspy voice.

"But we didn't," Natsu grinned. "Besides, we won't leave when our friend needs a shoulder to lean on."

She drew in a sharp breath and the fire mage could tell she was trying her best to keep her sobbing to a minimum. But even so, he felt moisture seeping into his clothes where her face was buried in his chest. She clutched his top tightly. "I-I'm sorry, I don't like letting people see me cry."

"Take all the time you need," he said.

The booming thunder and loud drums of rain on the concrete floor outside drowned out the sounds of her crying.

* * *

><p>"I'm so sorry for troubling the both of you," Grace said guiltily, hanging her head low.<p>

Natsu gave her a playful smack to the shoulder with a wide grin on his face. "Stop apologizing already, like we said, we want to be here."

"Yeah Grace," Happy agreed, "we're your friends, right?"

"Mm. Thank you, Happy," she smiled, patting the top of his head gently.

"So, do you want to talk about it?" Natsu asked. Noting her hesitation, he quickly added, "We can leave if you want us to, we just wanted to make sure you're okay."

"No, it's fine. I think it'll be nice to get it off my chest anyway," she replied. "It's a rather long story though."

"Take your time; we've got lots."

Nodding, she closed her eyes. "I never told you the truth about my brother… His name is Argus, and he disappeared on a job two years ago."

Natsu gripped the edge of his scarf, but kept silent as she went on with her story. "My parents died when we were young. I was five then, and he was ten. Ever since, he took it upon himself to take care of me. He dropped out of school, did the household chores, and basically did all he could to provide a home for me even without our parents. He never cried in front of me, not once did he show any sign of weakness. All I saw was his smile.

"He decided to train to become a wizard, and joined the guild Lamia Scale. There, he picked up telekinesis and trained hard day and night to hone his skills and techniques. Within two years of joining, he became an S-class mage."

"An S-class mage?!" the two Fairy Tail mages exclaimed in unison.

"He was brilliant. The others called him a natural," she said, a sad smile playing on her lips. "When I was younger, sometimes I'd get bullied in school and he always came to my rescue. Whether it was my seniors or just the neighborhood bullies, he always arrived just in time to help me out. And this was how we grew up. When I was older I took over the domestic chores and then all he needed to do was go on jobs and earn money for our living expenses.

"Argus loved magic, and he had a passion for challenging himself and pushing himself to the limit in order to get better. He always said he wanted to get stronger… And so he chose an incredibly difficult mission. He never revealed the details of that job to me, but Michael was worried and so he asked me if I could persuade him to not go. Of course, that made me concerned for him and I talked to Argus about it but… if my brother has a fatal flaw it's his thick-headedness. He refused to listen, so he went along with it despite everyone's objections. Michael and two others went along with him to help out just in case.

"The job was supposed to take only about a year, but…"

"But if Michael is back, then doesn't that mean…" Happy asked.

Grace clenched his fists and looked away. "I don't believe him. Argus wouldn't disappear like that. He promised he wouldn't leave me alone. He promised. That's why I've been traveling all over the world trying to look for him. I refused to sit around idly and do nothing but wait for him like I've always done as a child."

"But how did you get the money for that?" the cat asked. "Unless you're a wizard, it would be hard for you to do odd jobs while traveling like that."

"I know I may not look like one, but I am a wizard," she replied with a little smirk.

"But your telekinesis?" Natsu asked with wide eyes.

"My brother taught me telekinesis, but it seems I don't have the talent for it. I was taking far too long to learn it, so I simply picked up martial arts and sword fighting."

"That's pretty similar to Erza," he remarked.

"I've always admired her skill," Grace admitted shyly. "I've been training for a year, but I hope to become like her someday."

"Hey, we should spar sometime," Natsu grinned. "I think it would be fun."

"I won't hold back, but don't expect too much from me."

"I'm sure your brother did, though."

She paused slightly. "Y-Yeah… He did…"

"Hey Grace, can I ask you something?"

"What is it?"

"Why did you go on a blind date if you were so focused on looking for your brother?"

"Oh, that…" A pale rosy color appeared on her cheeks. "It was a deal that I made with my brother. As a child, I've always been shy and quiet, and my social circle has always been very… limited. So he forced me to promise to go on a blind date when I turned eighteen just so that he wouldn't have to worry about my future… Although every time he sees me with a guy he does something silly to scare him away from me. Rather contradictory, don't you think?" she chuckled lightly. "But I just wish that he didn't go for that mission sometimes… He was strong enough, so I don't understand why he needed to be any stronger than that."

"I can understand why he did it," Natsu replied.

She raised an eyebrow. "You do?"

"He probably wanted to get stronger for your sake. Since the two of you were young, he's always protected you, hasn't he? He only wanted to get stronger because he wanted to protect you better."

"But why? He was strong enough, why did he need to try to get stronger? That's so selfish… leaving me behind just so he can protect me. All my life, I've only been protected. I've always wanted to protect him too, but he was always just too strong!"

"I know how he feels. No matter how strong you are you'll always be afraid of not being strong enough to protect the people you love... But you know, I think he's still somewhere out there trying to find his way back home."

"You… really think so?"

"Yeah. He's just like me and Happy and our friends back in Fairy Tail. We'll never give up fighting if it means not being able to protect our family any longer. I believe somewhere out there, he's fighting, standing up again and again just so he can see you one more time."

"Your brother wouldn't give up as long as he knows you're here waiting for him to come home," Happy agreed. "So don't stop believing that you'll see him again, alright?"

"You know," she broke into a smile, "this is the first time someone has told me not to give up believing that he's still alive somewhere out there. Everyone else always tells me that I need to be realistic and to move on."

"Somewhere in your heart you know that Argus is still alive, so he must be alive," he replied. "It's like telepathy; only you would know that."

"Yeah, he's still alive. I can feel it, in here," Grace rested her palm over her heart. "I'll meet him someday again, I just know it. And Natsu," she turned to him, "I'm sure you'll find Igneel too, someday."

The pink-haired man nodded and flashed her a charming grin. "Yeah, I'm sure of it. In the meantime, I'll just keep getting stronger."

"You know, you remind me of him," she said with a coy smile. "You're really just like him."

"Argus? Yeah, except that I'm not an S-class mage yet," he said wryly.

"Thanks Natsu, Happy. Honestly, I'm glad I went for that blind date. I wouldn't have met the two of you otherwise and gained such wonderful friends."

"I'm glad we met you too," Natsu returned.

"By the way," Happy cut in, "are the brownies done yet?"

Grace's smile quickly morphed into a grimace. "Oh no! Just a minute!" She bolted out of her seat and went to the oven to check on the snacks.

She came back with a tray of burnt food. "I'm so sorry… We can make another batch now if you want. Brownies don't take very long to make."

"Nah, it's fine. Lucy should be coming back from her job around now," Natsu said with a small sigh as he checked the clock. It was nearly nine in the evening. "We'll go see her now."

"All right then. Good luck," she smiled as she saw them off at the door.

"Thanks," they muttered in unison. They were going to need lots of it.

* * *

><p>AN: It's midnight over here yay! Welcome to 1 Jan 2015! :DD And now that Hugh's out of the picture, I think I'll enjoy writing this fan fiction more haha. Extra long chapter this time! It was fun writing about Grace's back-story. (: Hope you enjoyed this chapter and happy new year!

And also, not forgetting the amazing people who left a review: **FDsecretart, LeeshyLoo, CelestialWizard, SandraStar66, FairyTailLover390, SashaMonroe, JayandNya4evr, FairyAngel123, richgirl555cub, CelestialTroll, Whitebunny789, artistofthemind, Hehee, , Poxxy, TookACookie, DancesWithSeatbelts** and** AnimeBae!**

And by the way, thank you guys for 200 follows! (: Hope the rest of this fan fiction doesn't disappoint and I'm looking forward to an amazing 2015 with you guys! God bless and best wishes to everyone for the new year!


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